“Dr. Olonisakin, your attention is needed in the emergency room…”
I inwardly groaned at the announcement over the PA. Today was meant to be my chilling day. Most of my patients came in over the past three days and Thursday was supposed to be mine. Now, I was being summoned to the emergency… Of all places. It probably meant the doctors there had their hands full already… That does not sound nice.
I quickly grabbed my Paracetamol branded ward coat which I rarely put on while in my office, especially when with my patients. I discovered that many of them felt more free and relaxed when the setting was not loudly proclaiming my ‘doctorship’.
My burgundy Littman stethoscope was already around my neck, its bell side hitting my chest.
“… Three casualty victims have just been wheeled in; one has severe internal bleeding, admitting Packed Cell Volume (PCV) is 08%…”
That patient would need to be transfused with blood ASAP and wheeled into the operating room as soon as possible. It could be any organ that had ruptured and was bleeding. But with that low a Packed Cell Volume (PCV), I was already suspecting the spleen. I put a call through to one of our general surgeons. That spleen would definitely need to be removed.
“What about the other two? Are they as bad?”
The Medical officer assigned to work with me was working on getting an intravenous access for the second patient whose right thigh was very swollen.
“No, ma. This woman, the wife of the internal bleeding man, has a femoral fracture and has lost some teeth. The Orthopedics team has been informed and the ENT surgeons have come to review her. She looks stable. I’ve transfused her too.”
So, we had a couple.
“What’s their name again?”
“Pastor and Pastor (Mrs) Adejobi. You should know them, ma. Their church is quite popular in Lagos and…”
I had stopped listening. Lolo and Abbey’s parents? I had not gotten a chance to look at their faces and even if I had, their faces were swollen from all the injuries they had sustained. I doubt I would have recognized them at first.
Dr. Ahmen was going to be operating on Pastor Adejobi who had already been prepped for surgery as much as possible in an emergency situation as this was. The surgery was not the issue, it was the recovery period that needed to be soaked in prayers, vigilance and intense proactive work. Things could turn bad within seconds.
The orthopedics team were certain of Mrs. Adejobi’s recovery and eventual return to function, all things being equal. The fracture was clean, no crushed parts, which was a miracle considering the severity of the accident.
The third victim of the crash was the drunk bike man that had swerved into the wrong lane and caused the whole mayhem. He was lucky. Minor bruises here and there, a laceration across his forehead and a whole load of pain and he was out of the hospital in less than two hours.
By the time we were done stitching him up, serving him with a brief counselling session and booking him for follow up clinics for his alcohol addiction, the orthopedics team were done and Dr. Ahmen was ready to take out Pastor Adejobi’s spleen. I knew i needed to call in their kids.
It was going to be a long day apparently.
