Kids and Cutting to Air

This is a guest post written by Dr Mike Cameron FACEM, a Queensland-based emergency physician. It was the mid-1980s and I was almost at the end of my third year as a doctor. I was working in England, about an hour’s motorcycle ride North of London, in a district hospital of a few hundred beds. I remember it was cold. That night I was the Anaesthetic Senior House Officer (SHO) on call. I had done a few cases in Theatre but I had got out before midnight and things were looking pretty good sleep-wise. Labour Ward had a couple in early labour but no epidurals required. I was on a 1:2 roster, but my Registrar and I alternated the first and second call so I was generally only in the hospital 1:4, unless it got too crazy. We both lived a two minute drive from the hospital. The Anaesthetic Consultant was on call too, from home in a nearby village. The Consultant generally wasn’t called. The first on call slept in the hospital on call room, with a pager. For the young people reading this: a pager was a marvel of technology which preceded mobile phones. It was a radio receiver the size of a pack of playing cards and would make loud beeps (called ‘bleeps’ in England) then announce through a small speaker what was required. Usually it was a number to call, a ward or theatre. Sometimes to call switchboard for an outside call. The nearest hospital telephone extension was usually within a few metres, so it was easy to respond promptly. Then there was the cardiac arrest call,...
Source: Life in the Fast Lane - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Anaesthetics Emergency Medicine child cricothyroidotomy mike cameron paediatric surgical airway trick of the trade Source Type: blogs