When doing “nothing” really matters

She came up to me and said, “You saved my life.” I remember meeting this woman while I was walking my dog in a woody park near my home and I was taken aback.  She didn’t look like someone who should be dead; she was young and vibrant and out for a hike. Then she added details.  She had an ectopic pregnancy. She came to the ED in shock. She was frightened.  She was right- I did take care of her.  I remembered her coming in with nearly no blood pressure, with low belly pain and a positive pregnancy test.  In the days before ultrasound, this was enough for me to advocate for her to go to the OR with OB.  They took her, and we were right, she had a ruptured ectopic. And clearly, she had lived. So as it came back, I then remembered and said, “I did nothing.” Meaning I did nothing unusual.  Two large bore IVs, some intense phone calls, the pregnancy test, a physical and I remember standing by her head and whispering in her ear nearly the whole time to explain everything.  Because she was scared.  And this was the worst day of her life, and it was the right thing to do. We say that a lot, my friends and I.  We have a habit of meeting people on the worst days, or nearly the worst days of their lives in the Emergency Department.  We stand there, shoulder to shoulder and just do the right thing. We give them the moments of care and humanity that mean so much at those horrible times.  But to us, it is a day at work.  It is what we do.  And because we make such a ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: General Medicine Authors: Tags: Physician Emergency Medicine Source Type: blogs