entrepreneur
i would like to say this is a south african story, but , truth be told, when people see the opprtunity to make money off the backs of the stupid and vulnerable, then it is pretty much a free for all (eg, eg.)at the local state hospital, as it should be, there is an hiv clinic. as the name would imply they treat the many people in our area with hiv using modern antiretroviral medication which is proven to lower the viral load and can turn a once deadly disease into a manageable one, not unlike diabetes.yet still there is a stigma associated with hiv and it gets treated unlike any other disease. you can't simply test someone...
Source: other things amanzi - June 2, 2012 Category: Surgery Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
diaphragm
in the old days, before i would operate, i used to get a bit worked up. i used to have an adrenal rush at the sheer prospect of cutting a fellow human being open and fixing something. these days...not so much. most of it has become a bit mundane. but there are exceptions. traumatic diaphragm rupture is right up there and for the flimsiest of reasons.
it was my first month in a general surgery firm. my registrar was one month away from his finals so he tended to keep his head down. this meant he stayed at home with his nose in the books while i handled the calls. once the patient was on the table i would call him to come i...
Source: other things amanzi - June 1, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
diaphragm
in the old days, before i would operate, i used to get a bit worked up. i used to have an adrenal rush at the sheer prospect of cutting a fellow human being open and fixing something. these days...not so much. most of it has become a bit mundane. but there are exceptions. traumatic diaphragm rupture is right up there and for the flimsiest of reasons.it was my first month in a general surgery firm. my registrar was one month away from his finals so he tended to keep his head down. this meant he stayed at home with his nose in the books while i handled the calls. once the patient was on the table i would call him to come in ...
Source: other things amanzi - June 1, 2012 Category: Surgery Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
chicken feet
i hate kalafong (hell). there are many reasons for this (here, here, here, here, here), most emotional, i confess. but if i am honest there is one incident that stands head and shoulders above the myriad of traumas that i experienced there.
one of the strange idiosyncrasies of kalafong (hell) is that some time during each night shift, all the sisters of each ward get together in the duty room and eat chicken feet. i have no explanation for this. maybe there is an abundance of chicken feet in the area. maybe the sisters are paid in part with chicken feet that absolutely must be eaten before they leave for home after their ...
Source: other things amanzi - May 29, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
chicken feet
i hate kalafong (hell). there are many reasons for this (here,here,here,here,here), most emotional, i confess. but if i am honest there is one incident that stands head and shoulders above the myriad of traumas that i experienced there.one of the strange idiosyncrasies of kalafong (hell) is that some time during each night shift, all the sisters of each ward get together in the duty room and eat chicken feet. i have no explanation for this. maybe there is an abundance of chicken feet in the area. maybe the sisters are paid in part with chicken feet that absolutely must be eaten before they leave for home after their shift....
Source: other things amanzi - May 29, 2012 Category: Surgery Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
understandings
anaesthetists and surgeons work together quite a bit, but they are very different creatures. sometimes it takes a bit of effort for them to understand each other and get along. some would say it takes effort from pretty much anyone to get along with a surgeon. so it is nice to hear a story occasionally of an anesthetic colleague that is willing to do what is needed to understand and get along with the general surgeon he was working with. these were the observations of a student during his rotation through the anesthetics department.
when the student in question arrived at work, he was quite excited to hear that he was dea...
Source: other things amanzi - May 13, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
understandings
anaesthetists and surgeons work together quite a bit, but they are very different creatures. sometimes it takes a bit of effort for them to understand each other and get along. some would say it takes effort from pretty much anyone to get along with a surgeon. so it is nice to hear a story occasionally of an anesthetic colleague that is willing to do what is needed to understand and get along with the general surgeon he was working with. these were the observations of a student during his rotation through the anesthetics department.when the student in question arrived at work, he was quite excited to hear that he was dealt...
Source: other things amanzi - May 13, 2012 Category: Surgery Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
la mancha
the man was an enigma. those who knew him soon realised he was the only person in kalafong (hell) that cared anymore. somehow that terrible place hadn't eroded his soul to such an extent that he no longer gave a damn about his patients. yet to those who only had a fleeting acquaintance with him, he seemed course and even harsh. he didn't fit into kalafong (hell), yet he would not have fitted into any other place quite as well as he fitted into kalafong (hell). yes, he was an enigma.
my consultant in kalafong (hell), the enigma, had a certain way of bringing his point across (here and here). on the face of it it was never ...
Source: other things amanzi - May 2, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
la mancha
the man was an enigma. those who knew him soon realised he was the only person in kalafong (hell) that cared anymore. somehow that terrible place hadn't eroded his soul to such an extent that he no longer gave a damn about his patients. yet to those who only had a fleeting acquaintance with him, he seemed course and even harsh. he didn't fit into kalafong (hell), yet he would not have fitted into any other place quite as well as he fitted into kalafong (hell). yes, he was an enigma.my consultant in kalafong (hell), the enigma, had a certain way of bringing his point across (here andhere). on the face of it it was never pre...
Source: other things amanzi - May 2, 2012 Category: Surgery Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
live and learn
i am not an orthopod. i don't drive a four by four. i don't wear a checkered shirt and i sure as hell don't use a tourniquet when doing an amputation. to be fair, i have nothing against four by fours and a checkered shirt just makes me look like i'm wearing a dishcloth. but the tourniquet rule is absolute.
there are a few sound clinical reasons general surgeons don't use tourniquets for amputations. we tend to do amputations on people with compromised arterial blood supply so we tend not to want to make things worse by constricting the artery upstream from where we are working. we are maybe a bit scare...
Source: other things amanzi - April 18, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
live and learn
i am not an orthopod. i don't drive a four by four. i don't wear a checkered shirt and i sure as hell don't use a tourniquet when doing an amputation. to be fair, i have nothing against four by fours and a checkered shirt just makes me look like i'm wearing a dishcloth. but the tourniquet rule is absolute.there are a few sound clinical reasons general surgeons don't use tourniquets for amputations. we tend to do amputations on people with compromised arterial blood supply so we tend not to want to make things worse by constricting the artery upstream from where we are working. we are maybe a bit scared ...
Source: other things amanzi - April 18, 2012 Category: Surgery Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
twisted testicles
testicular torsion, to put it mildly, is a terrible condition. the testis twists around on its axis, cutting off its own blood supply. over and above the excruciating pain, if it is not operated within about six hours of it happening, well then you can pretty much kiss that testis goodbye. and to make things worse, it strikes young boys who have just entered puberty while they are awkward and unsure of themselves. it is seldom that they ask for help until long after it is all to late. at least that makes the operation easy... you simply cut out the necrotic testis, easy as pie. but at the operation, it is always important ...
Source: other things amanzi - March 15, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
twisted testicles
testicular torsion, to put it mildly, is a terrible condition. the testis twists around on its axis, cutting off its own blood supply. over and above the excruciating pain, if it is not operated within about six hours of it happening, well then you can pretty much kiss that testis goodbye. and to make things worse, it strikes young boys who have just entered puberty while they are awkward and unsure of themselves. it is seldom that they ask for help until long after it is all to late. at least that makes the operation easy... you simply cut out the necrotic testis, easy as pie. but at the operation, it is always important ...
Source: other things amanzi - March 15, 2012 Category: Surgery Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
coma
one of the curses of kalafong (hell) was that there was no neurosurgical service. this meant us mere general surgeons had to handle the many head injuries that came in. so, for example, when some guy decided to cave in the head of his so-called best friend with a five iron on the golf course because they had started with the nineteenth hole instead of the first, we ended up either dumping them in icu with a tube down the trachea to wait to see what happened or trying to turf them to a neurosurgeon that could actually operate them. it was far easier to dump them in icu. mind you, it was easier to turn lead into gold than to...
Source: other things amanzi - January 28, 2012 Category: Surgeons Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
coma
one of the curses of kalafong (hell) was that there was no neurosurgical service. this meant us mere general surgeons had to handle the many head injuries that came in. so, for example, when some guy decided to cave in the head of his so-called best friend with a five iron on the golf course because they had started with the nineteenth hole instead of the first, we ended up either dumping them in icu with a tube down the trachea to wait to see what happened or trying to turf them to a neurosurgeon that could actually operate them. it was far easier to dump them in icu. mind you, it was easier to turn lead into gold than to...
Source: other things amanzi - January 28, 2012 Category: Surgery Authors: Bongi Source Type: blogs
