A medical student delays reporting his needlestick. Here ’s what he learned.
A few months ago, I was on my general surgery rotation on the colorectal service as a medical student. It was in the late afternoon that we started a case of a robotic rectopexy to repair a rectal prolapse. Our patient was a kind and warm 89-year-old woman. The operation finished without a hitch.
As we undocked the da Vinci machine, the resident and I began to suture closed the multiple robotic ports on the abdomen. Half-way done with the second port on my side, I felt a pinch on my left index finger as I was locating the suture needle with the driver. I paused briefly to check my gloves. It was only later as I unscrubbed that I saw a tiny puncture wound from the suture needle and a few bright drops of blood. By the end of the day, I walked myself to the emergency department per protocol and waited for the results of my patient’s infectious disease screening. I had checked her chart already. Hypertension. Hyperlipidemia. Cataracts. Arthritis. No IV drug abuse or promiscuous sexual activity. She was a typical 89 year old.
And so, I casually waited. You must know where this is going. This 89-year-old woman with a completely benign medical history turned up HIV-positive. I frantically searched for the sensitivity and specificity of the tests. Both were well above 99 percent. We checked and re-checked. It wasn’t a false positive. She had a viral load in the tens of thousands. I stared blankly at the floor as I gulped down the first two pills of my 4-week post-exposure prophyl...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/anonymous" rel="tag" > Anonymous < /a > Tags: Education Medical school Surgery Source Type: blogs
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