Another bleeding splenectomy...

I actually planned to start this post while i was on call on Wednesday...but a laparotomy came up...so i had to abandon my attempt...now it's already early morning Friday...i'm still up..multitasking...packing for my Taipei trip while typing this blog...everything's been happening in a row, which has left me overwhelmed...to the point of being sleepless at night again....

My call on Wednesday was actually quite good during the day...was left with only a plastic case that was posted the previous 2 days...so i did the case...30% dermal flame burn...patient is 34 years-old...and they only debrided the limbs...nothing too complicated...then ortho posted 2 cases...one I & D and one saucerization...nothing too exciting...even had time to help the ortho elective OT to do one of their cases....about 4pm, the neurosurgery MO called...one of the ICU patient needed a re-craniotomy and evacuation of clots....oh well, that would fill up the otherwise wasted OT time, so i thought...it did actually...lasted 5 hours...

Of course i didn't expect that there would be another bleeding splenectomy....i did pre-med the day before for a 14 year-old thalassaemic boy whose spleen and liver were so big that he looked pregnant...last week when i was on call in ICU, i had a bleeding splenectomy as well...this was like history repeating itself...but this time, i was stuck in OT with the neuro case...the surgical MO called me at about 8.15pm and said, "I know you're doing a neuro case now, but i have a bleeding splenec that i need to go in now!"...Like, i wish i was God...but that's just not going to happen...i only have one emergency OT and they were still stitching up the head (that would be like another hour)...where the hell was i supposed to put the bleeding splenectomy? and a bleeding case definitely can't wait...

Thank God my boss came to the rescue and opened the OT upstairs for that splenec boy...but unlike the splenec girl last week, this boy didn't survive the re-exploration....by the time i finished up the neuro case and ran upstairs, the boy was dead...i was just talking to him and his dad the day before...and now he was gone....so this is the God-complex in me thinking...if only i had postponed the case...then he wouldn't have to die...but i didn't have any reason to postpone his case....i couldn't bear to look at the father in his eyes...

Sigh, i think i'm developing a splenectomy-phobia...i wonder if i'd still dare to do a splenectomy when i become a surgical MO...