Indexing Title:  RJPeralta Medical Anecdotal Report

MAR Title:  Extra Step

Date of Observation: February 2008

Narration:

A hospital is a place where anyone can ask and get help in their medical problems.  In doing so, the hospital and its staff are expected to be equipped with the basic tools and knowledge to sustain or prolong life. 

In the wee hours of the day during one of my duties, I received a call from a resident of another department who was inquiring about an extra ambubag that she could borrow. 

         At that time, there was an internal medicine patient in the wards being ambubaged and another one who might be intubated.  I asked the nurse-on-duty if the department has an extra but there was none.  The resident replied, “anu ba yan ambubag lang ipagdadamot nyo pa.  Sabi ng ENT ung ambubag nila asa inyo.  Makonsensya naman kayo mamamatay ang isang pasyente dahil walang ambubag.”  Honestly, her statement irritated me.  I mean, am I the right person to ask for an ambubag?  Nevertheless, I tried to keep my cool.  I again, inquired about any extra ambubag that the department might have and the nursing aide replied that the department have no functional ambubag and the one that we are currently using is borrowed from the department of ENT.  I narrated the situation as politely as possible to that resident.  She seemed irritated but what can I do? She said thanks and good-bye.

After that, I did not feel any resentment for the resident but I feel for her.  She was just doing what she was to do and one-step more.

Insight: (Physical, Ethical, Psychosocial)
(Discovery, Reinforcement, Stimulus)

There had been many events happening in this institution wherein it is really heart breaking.

Imagine, an arresting  patient and we are giving out prescription for an ampule of epinephrine, a bleeding patient who is hypotensive and the only available abbocath is gauge 22, a stab wound patient who clinically needs a CTT but was inserted with an endotracheal tube due to lack of chest tube. 

Well, don’t imagine, we all have it here and more.

Yes, Ospital ng Maynila Medical Center is a tertiary hospital who lacks many things including the basic ones needed to help a patient but do we stop because of this? 

Of course not.

We are in the business of saving lives and being in this business, we have to make that extra effort to satisfy our clients whether we are equipped or not. We cannot solve this problem on our own but we can do something about it. 

Training in this institution, not only mold us what we wanted to be, in our situation, a surgeon but also to be a real life MacGyver  in making innovations for somethings we don’t or can’t have. 

To take that extra step to make our patients well.