account of a day of working in an ER

[jrtom]

from a random comment in naudiz's LJ:

http://figent-figary.livejournal.com/23878.html

From this entry I learned that you can apparently die from alcohol _withdrawal_ in some cases. (This surprised me quite a bit.)

The 'voice' of the narrator reminds me somewhat of what I imagine Dad's voice might be like in a similar context.

I also find the material regarding Malina (an intern that is often detail-oriented...on the wrong details) to be a good cautionary example for myself, as I sometimes have similar tendencies...*rueful smile*

Comments

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Yup. My father died from alcohol withdrawal. He went into the military hospital for relatively minor surgery and didn't tell the doctors he was a fifth-a-day alcoholic. He had a seizure in the recovery room, his heart stopped and they couldn't get it started again.

The death certificate listed the cause of death as heart failure, but the doctor told my mom that it was alcohol withdrawal - he just didn't want to put that on the certificate because it would reflect badly on the military.

[jrtom.livejournal.com]

Wow. My apologies if I stepped on something; I didn't expect this to be something with which someone on my friends list would have such personal experience.

I am reminded of something that one of Heinlein's characters said (in _Between Planets_, IIRC)--something to the effect that in the end, all death can be attributed to heart failure. Clearly not literally true, but generally close enough that it can be a convenient half-truth.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

Oh, heavens, no problem. It happened 40 years ago, and we were none too close to begin with. I just offered it as a datapoint.