The Wicked Doctor

Author's Anecdote

I found one Facebook post today. 

It was horrible. It was dreadful. It was pitiful. It was an eye-opener at the same time. 

Why did I say so?

Here's the whole story. 

I opened my other Facebook account and I found this post about a child who allegedly died because of medical malpractice, a medical error. I read the whole post and it was the child's parent who was claiming that their child died on the hands of the doctor, probably because of that poorly stitched and covered up slash on the child's left foot. According to him, the child was brought to the hospital as if he wasn't sick and only suffering from bouts of loose bowel movement or diarrhea, diagnosed as dehydration.  According to the post, nurses "practiced" on his child's veins and unsuccessful in their attempts to insert a catheter for around 4-5 hours until a a doctor finally came to try and insert which was a futile attempt as well. They then took the child to the operating room for IV insertion. The parents were told that the tube insertion was for the introduction of "pampakalma" to the child's system (I bet this was a sedative) much to the parents' horror. The child was then wheeled out of the operating room after the procedure and brought to the ICU where he deteriorated and died. 

So what happened? What went wrong? 

What went wrong lies in the comments and the post it self.  

Once I read the comments oh my God umakyat lahat ng kumukulo kong dugo sa ulo ko. Sa sobrang inis ko gusto kong itapon ang cellphone ko sa pinakamalapit na pader. 

"Mamamatay tao, kawawa naman yung baby"

"Nagkamali yung doctor ng turok diyan, medical malpractice yan."

"Pinagpraktisan yang anak mo kawawa naman"

"Nilaslas na nga garapalan pa pagkakatahi ng sugat niya"

"Tanggalan ng lisensya yan"

"Mga buang na nurse bakit kailangan pa buksan ang katawan ng bata..ang lagyan ijection lang ng antibiotic para sa lagnat nd operahan ohhh!!nooo they stupid nurse" 

And so many more. 

It irks me so much thinking that so many people are saying this without even thinking and without even reading. Masakit, on my part, being  a registered medical professional na ganito lang kababa ang tingin ng mga tao sa amin while in fact what the doctor did was to save the child's life. 

I will walk the non-medical readers through the process para mas maintindihan ng lay men kung ano ba talaga yung LASLAS na yun sa paa ng bata. 

When we insert lines, the first one we look at is the hand, then pataas. If wala sa kamay then sa pataa, pataas ulit until umabot sa groin kung wala pa rin. Then if wala na naman doon sa scalp (usually sa babies ito) doon na sa leeg. If all veins were used, walang possible na ugat we resort to intraosseous access, swero na diretso sa bone but this one is limited to 48 hours of use (dito sa facility ko). That's the time ginagawa ang VENOUS CUTDOWN, a procedure done to access a vein through an incision. In the simplest words na alam ko: HINIHIWA PO para makita ang ugat at doon directly nagtutusok ng line.