A brief post from the PICU

[resonance42]

On overnight call in the PICU. During this day, a number of useful hints and life lessons have come up

Comments

[cerridwynn]

Now and then i wonder if i should have gone to medical school. A post like this reminds me why i decided it wasn't right for me.

Thank you for doing the job that i couldn't handle.

[resonance42]

I love the job. I agree with you - it's not right for everyone, and it shouldn't be.

Everyone thinks of pediatrics as happy and shiny all the time - giving kids lollipops to say 'ah.'

I think I've seen the darker side of humanity as a pediatrician more than in any other field of health care.

[jendaviswilson]

And thank you very much for not telling us the prognoses of those cases.

Unless you want to tell us they all lived (or will live) happily ever after.

[resonance42]

All lived.

Happily ever after is a different story.

[digitalemur]

Jezus. How many of those 4 cases had to be referred to child welfare?

Goddamn, it is _scary_ what some people will do to kids, and just out of neglect rather than malice....

[resonance42]

All but the last one.

Social work was involved, but we felt that it was an honest mistake, and the years frightened out of their lives was an adequate admonition.