Saturday 13th June 2020 : Reality Check This week I’d quite like to get off the rollercoaster we’ve all been...
Clinician Stories
Re-living harrowing moments
The guttural howl could be heard at the other end of the corridor. It went on and on, uncontrollable, penetrating the...
Reconstructing a different life 4
Part 4: Resumption My parents in law had decided that my wife, son and I deserved a holiday. They were taking us to...
Re-haunting: The day the bikes came
The first pre-alert of the day probably had nothing to do with the annual bank holiday biker jaunt to the coast. A car carrying three young men had crashed. I can't remember the detail, but I do remember a sense of anticipation; possibly even excitement. I...
Re-juvenating: lessons from patients
Working with sick children is a journey that has its joys, its pain, its ups and downs. It is highly rewarding to accompany the child and their parents in their journey but, the most challenging scenario that any health professional dreads is dealing with child death....
Re-adjusting expectations
We had a fifty one year old gentleman with NASH (non alcoholic steatohepatitis) who had presented with haematemesis on our ITU outreach list on the previous Friday with a litre of haematemesis witnessed in A&E. There was no gastro on call over the weekend so he...
Remember – parental instinct; ignore at your peril
Over the years there are many many times when I have felt an enormous amount of respect and empathy for the parents of the children I have been involved in caring for. As a junior doctor I worked for six months as a paediatric SHO. It was a general paediatric job,...
Re-evaluating: from protocol to personal.
Some conversations are difficult - really difficult. We know we need to have them; explore options, weigh up risks and benefits, talk about how the end of life may be. Wouldn't it be so much easier if there was just a standard script - one that everyone already knew;...
Re-normalising – whatever that may be….
He was just another immigrant detainee asking for his protocol medical check-up at the local walk in centre. Usually this was a request for some pain relief – sleeping on police station benches with no blankets leads, unsurprisingly, to back pain. Accompanied by two...
Reminders: Bart Simpson’s socks
Every clinician has a moment in their careers that makes them stop, reboot, reflect and maybe even change direction completely. Such moments can be life changing and can be a hair’s breadth from the individual leaving health care for good, as so beautifully...
Renegotiating: When Worlds Collide
The evening started like any other, a day spent sleeping poorly, counting the hours until another long night spent in the emergency department. My disguise laid out; dark green scrubs, pens, stethoscope and an ID badge. My hair is scraped back off my shoulders and I...
Reckoning: hopelessness and helplessness
She was the first patient of my 10am shift a couple of months ago but I’ve thought a lot about her and her children since then. I spent three hours talking with her and about her. Yet, in the end, I couldn’t really help her. She and her friend followed me into the...