I was on duty last Sunday in Tagoloan. It was a sleepy Sunday. Benign admissions. Mostly diarrhea or fever. A lot of outpatients but nothing really toxic.
7:15 PM
Nurse: Doc, multiple stab wounds at the ER.
I practically slammed the phone down and nearly tripped running to the ER. When I got there, slightly out of breath, I saw the patient.
He had multiple stab wounds alright.
Multiple stab wounds on his ARMS.
He apparently was out drinking and someone who was drinking as well, decided to attack him with an ice pick. So he shielded his body with his arms, hence the extensive injuries on both upper extremities. A 15-cm deep laceration on his right forearm running up to his upper arm, passing through the antecubital area. A through and through punctured wound on his left hand with possibly torn tendons.
While I was kinda pissed that the nurse couldn't have qualified that the multiple stab wounds were nowhere near his chest, I was glad it wasn't that serious.
10:15 PMI was on my way to the doctor's quarters when I passed by the ER and saw some people dragging some guy into the ER.
And there he was.
Multiple stab wounds to the anterior and posterior trunk. One directly above the heart. Blood everywhere.
He was apparently fishing when he was found by his daughter-in-law at the shore, unresponsive and bleeding.
No BP, no cardiac tones, no respiration. I figured he was already dead a good hour before he was found and brought to the ER. Nonetheless, I went through the motions of intubation, CPR... I really didn't think he could be revived but his blood relatives weren't there yet. I couldn't just say, "Oh, you weren't here yet but he was dead when he got here so I figured there was no sense in doing anything." It would have saved them some money but it really wouldn't help with the grieving.
Oh, by the way. Based on the stab wounds, the likely weapon was an ice pick.
Either there was a drunk madman with an ice pick on the loose. Or today's criminals prefer ice picks as their weapon of choice.
No comments:
Post a Comment