😷 COVID-19 scare in the paediatric ward
Little bedtime read before you doze off... or this might make you doze off. You're welcome
The scare of a possible COVID-19 exposure
During the week, we had a lot of patients come in due to infections of the respiratory tract as well a few with either swollen lymph nodes, rashes, pain etc
One of the children stood out in particular as he was very anxious and did not like the idea of being in the hospital at all - and that he was in a lot of pain from the looks of it. Taking blood from this patient took around 30 minutes as it was filled with him crying, being held down and the nurses/registrars struggling with finding a good vein.
In the midst of the blood taking, when there were around 5 staff in the room assisting with the blood taking, a nurse walks in and says:
" This kid has not been tested for COVID"
in a slightly panicky tone. You could cut the tension in the room with a scalpel (you thought I was going to say knife didn't you).
After that interaction, everyone was on edge, including me as I was pretty close to the kid and it was very unsettling knowing his COVID status was not determined. The afternoon was filled with panic and anxiety, however, no one addressed the matter and the kid was admitted for 3 nights and nothing was mentioned - so I assume he was tested (they had to have tested him) and the results were negative and therefore insignificant to inform anyone in contact.
but yeah, not a nice experience.
Child that only i could calm down
A nice experience that I had this week was with a child who would cry endlessly when confronted by doctors and with the use of stickers (that a friend brings to the ward for the kids, which by the way is a great idea to calm kids down) I was able to manage this child.
Whenever the consultants would try to examine him, I would hand him stickers and chat to him and make sure he doesn't cry. It is something that I noticed the consultants and residents appreciated. It is not "medicine" but it is still satisfying when you play a role like that.
Resident who was scared of taking blood
One of the lovely residents whom I shadowed this week was asked to take blood from a child. He was very obviously nervous and anxious and you could see him chatting to himself (maybe walking himself through the steps of blood taking).
This sounds cynical, but I was kind of happy? that I saw someone who was a DOCTOR and 4 months into residency being nervous about blood taking.
He was forgetting some of the equipment which I was handed to him, and he even confessed about being nervous and asked a senior nurse to come and assist/watch him. He was unable to get the blood, the nurse took over, but hey, at least he tried.
Entertainment of the week:
AMONG US!
Honestly, I am still binging this game and I am enjoying every second that it deserves a second shoutout.
Song of the week:
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