Appreciating My Surgical Colleagues

Emergency medicine was a section in the department of surgery at the Medical College of Georgia until we became a department in 1996. The designation as an academic department occurred as part of my job negotiations when I was being recruited as the first academic chairman of emergency medicine.   But sometimes hard feelings and animosity lingers. I would like to say that relations with our surgical services were amiable and characterized by mutual respect in the years that followed, but in fact, hostility, open and hidden, was common. Consequently, to this day I still have a slight surge of adrenaline (fight, not flight) when certain surgeons enter the emergency department.   We in emergency medicine pride ourselves on being increasingly comfortable performing surgical and interventional procedures traditionally performed by other specialties, but without a doubt medicine remains an interdependent practice. In fact, if I were to be airlifted into an austere environment and had to select a second specialist to accompany me, I am pretty sure I would pick a general surgeon. Even now, there are patients and conditions when my surgical colleagues are a welcome sight. This month’s videos are examples of some of these clinical situations when I especially appreciate my surgical colleagues.   Click here to watch a video on cherry bomb surgery.   Click here to watch the video on stiletto surgery.   Click here to watch the video on devastating leg surgery.   Click here fo...
Source: M2E Too! Mellick's Multimedia EduBlog - Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs