Paeds ED

Spent the night in ED tonight. It was actually a really good experience, even if I didn't manage to get the surg case I need for next week. Saw some good patients, and some 'interesting' ones. I guess it was a good mix.

There was one girl who came in with this vague right hip/RIF pain that at various points moved across her abdo, and radiated down her leg. She'd been seen by ED staff at another hospital, her GP, chiropractor and had had X-rays done. Nothing was conclusive. The mother was the worst historian, by virtue of being volume-overloaded. She just wouldn't shut up. Every minute detail and insignificant triviality she'd just talk about for ages. It took so damn long to talk to her, the whole ED was running behind schedule! (just kiddding)

Anyway, the docs went and saw her and they looked at her films, which seemed to show a slipepd disc at some level in her lumbar spine. It was still not a cause of her abdo pain and her inability to walk properly or stretch her knee out however. The docs ended up telling her to take some neurofen and that it would get better in a few days. Talk about Munchausen's by proxy!

Before that, we saw this little girl being resuscitated after being rushed to PMH in an ambo. She had been spiking temps for a while and was in the process of being seen by the GP when she lost consciousness and began fitting. Ater trying various methods of controlling the fits, she ended up having to be put under a GA and being transported to ICU. I'd never seen anything like it before in my life!