Yes, doctors get sick too. And very frequently they end up in the ER – either because they wait too long to be seen and by the time they finally do, they are in severe pain or really sick, or they are too busy/lazy to go to their own PMD! They often “curbside” you to ask if their small cut needs sutures, or if some other lesion they have is “a spider bite” or something else more serious. Once and a while they pull you into an empty room and ask you to exam them. Other times they come staggering in with a deformed extremity from a fall. Here are some examples over the last few years:
1. Acute Stroke/TIA – I have seen at least three older MD’s who thought they were having a stroke (only one was).
2. Gastroenteritis – often pediatricians due to the nature of their practise.
3. Broken arms and legs – a dime a dozen. Many docs fancy themselves as “sporty” and wipe out on their bikes, ice rink, etc.
4. Kidney stones – I have seen 4 MD’s with multiple attacks. One guy is a urologist who ironically enough was upstairs in the OR doing a procedure to remove a patient’s ureteral stone when he suddenly was stricken with one of his own!
5. Pneumonia – We almost had to intubate one old doc with a bad pneumonia
6. Vertigo – this extremely common problem does not spare MD’s. I am almost just waiting for my first attack!
7. Sick Children – Kids of docs with croup, fevers, lacerations, broken bones, etc are a frequent occurrence here.
8. Metastatic Cancer – There was one sad case a few years ago where one of the older MD’s in our hospital crashed his car in the doctor’s lot -and was found very confused in the driver’s seat. He wound up have massive cerebral metastases from a previously undiagnosed primary cancer. He died about a month later.
In general, MD’s tend to be high maintenance patients – however, when they work at the same hospital as I do, there are definite advantages. Mainly, they are usually VERY nice to you after you treat them or ESPECIALLY their children. They tend not to subsequently yell at you when you call them for an admission at night. Some of the sub-specialists seem almost surprised that we lowly ER docs actually know something. One particular case involved a particularly arrogant orthopaedist who brought her 8 year old son in for a barking cough. I told her is was most definitely croup. She thought it was not and that he had some more serious condition. I re-assured her and ordered a CXR to point out a neat little finding to her- a steeple sign (see the pic at the beginning of this post). She seemed utterly impressed and shocked that I knew such things. He was much better in two days on prednisolone and ever since then she never gives me (much) grief when I call her about a drunk with a fracture!
[...] When Doctors Get Sick Posted on September 22, 2008 by coptermedic From ER Stories: [...]
When Doctors get Sick…
Yes, doctors get sick too. And very frequently they end up in the ER – either because they wait too long to be seen and by the time they finally do, they are in severe pain or really sick, or they are too busy/lazy to go to their own PMD! ER stories …
ok two questions and one check this out
1. Can you explain for us nondocs what a steeple sign is
Check out the current issue of Discover (if not familiar they have a Vital Signs column usually written by ER doc about a case they had and the detective work involved in diagnosing and treating the case always NOT a slam dunk one) It was on an older guy who had balance probs. I learned you have 3 primary types of instability as an old guy. Two for this patient you can fix the problem by a series of head movements. My family doc growing up was a DO so when you can fix me w/o drugs esp the flawed ones being put on the market today Im all for it.
2. Whats the deal with the specialists thinking the ER docs are lower caliber? I can relate to the ER docs because a big part of my job as a waiter is like yours. I constantly have to run like a computer a list of what the next 5-10 things I need to do are and the list is changeable by the second based on what I see let alone by interactions with my guests. We are the ones who have to explain to the customer/patient how a failing by another area of the employer has failed and take thei grief on it. You have to apologize for a lab result cycle of 10 hours and I have to tell a self entitled ass his well down 2 inch thick tenderloin can NOT be cooked in the whopping 20 minutes since he ordered it and since his table was the last table to order of the current dinner rush then his steak probably didnt get put on the grill for a good 15 minutes.
I can understand the mentality of I spent X years focused on specialty X and you the ER doc trained on it specifically for a single rotation. But when you factor in you have to be fluent in EVERYTHING and deal with it in a trama situation. Pile on the drug seekers ( my coworkers), the homeless, the legitimate psych cases, and the uninsured using the ER as a primary care clinic. How is what you do any less worthy than the sheltered scheduled life they lead. And as a potential patient the pompous asses who refuse to come in on call when its inconvenient to them-WTF its part of being a hospital doc -you get to be on call so you can man up and do your job. Its not like you didnt figure out during residency a hospital doc will be on call -if that is a deal breaker form a private practice.
1. Steeple sign – see the picture at the top of the post. In cases of croup, one can often see a narrowing of the trachea. It shows up as a point in the shape of a steeple on X-ray.
2.I will do a post on this question tomorrow. Stay tuned.
I personally know an MD who sat at home with a pulmonary embolism for two days. His boss (a former family practice doc, now in admin) said, “You moron, go to the ED!”