AA,
I might or might not have mentioned that whilst I am spending the weekdays working, I am spending the weekends looking round thew country.
This weekend I went to Taman Negara, the oldest national park in Malaysia. It consists of some of the oldest rainforest on the planet, and is a truely beuatiful sight to behold. Many photos taken, so inshallah they will eventually find their way online.
Now, some of you will know that if you are out and about with me, and the conversation dies down, i may turn around and ask you to consider what you would do if at that moment, someone collapsed infront of you.
As it happens, I wasn't thinking about this as I completed my early morning trek and then walked along the worlds longest canopy walkway, marveling at the awesome natural sights and sounds around me. However, as I was descending from the walkway, we spoted a commotion further down the hill, and so I went rather rapidly to investigate.
It soon became clear that someone was in need of some medical assistance. As I got closer, I started to pick up the news of what was happening from the people hanging around. I got close to the victim, and the people there said that he had had a heart attack, and his heart had stopped beating.
At this point, the thoughts running through my head went somewhere along the lines of 'Cardiac arrest, 1.5km from camp (and therefore, help) on a steep, slippery slope with dense undergrowth and all I have to treat it with is half a bottle of luke warm water. Oh Boy.' (Sam Beckit moment)
Well, there was a lot of panic and confusion from the people around, some had started to try to carry him, a park ranger was close at hand, the relatives were panicing and I hadn't managed to assess the patient, cos I couldn't get close enough. Stuidies have shown that at times like this, the single event that influences things for a positive outcome is someone saying "Calm down, don't panic, I'm a doctor!".
Shame I can't use that line without lying. Oh well...
"Calm down, don't panic, I'm not a doctor... Yet!"
yep, thats pretty much what I said. In retrospect, it's not such a stupid thing, cos in their panicking state, all the people probably heard was "
Calm down, don't panic, I'm not
a doctor... yet!" Anyway, they let me through to see the patient, and did calm down.
Well, I quickly assessed the patient, made sure he was stable and then we strechered him by a short cut the ranger knew to a boat and a short (if quick and wet) ride back to camp, and the first aid post. Which was staffed by a 'medical assistant', which confused me a little... he was introduced to me as the doctor, but initially declined to do an ECG cos he couldn't read it.
Anyway, the post was basic (old ecg machine, few medicines, some sutures, and a couple of litres of saline), but sufficed. Certainly I wouldn't want to treat anything more serious than that over there, but with the closest A&E either 3 hours by boat and land, or 1 1/2 hours of bumpy drive out of the jungle, well, there wasn't a huge amount of choice.
For those of you wondering how I dealt with all that, lets just say, NEVER trust someone elses assessment of a patient, no matter how rushed the situation is, especially if they are only first- aid trained. oh, and never check for a pulse in a radial artery when the patient is in shock, cos it's a lot harder to find
Well, either way it was an interesting experiance for me. Incidently, we did offer the patient to be transfered, but he said he prefered to be treated by me. And as far as I know, he left the park in decent health, and will hopefully see his doctor when he gets home. His kids were being lecturerd by their mother and aunt about studying hard to become doctors, and I guess for me, maybe the events of 8 years ago won't haunt me so much anymore.
Well, best be off, internet is difficult here.
wslm
NMA
p.s. I have deliberately left out the details of the case.
edit: getting the bold bits right
)
