BLOOD ON MY HANDS

Tales from the Operating Room

"It was past 10 pm when I received an urgent call from the hospital to see somebody who had been involved in a road traffic accident. I had finished my dinner and was preparing to get to bed as I am an early riser. I quickly changed and rushed to hospital

He was a young man, in his twenties. He had been involved in a hit and run accident. He was conscious and grunting with pain. His pulse was barely felt, his heart racing and his blood pressure was dangerously low. His belly was tense and swollen.

An emergency ultrasound scan showed that his entire abdomen, doctors’ jargon for belly, was full of what appeared to be blood. The emergency room doctor had already asked for several bottles of blood to be readied for the man. Something was bleeding inside his belly and he would die of loss of blood very soon. I had to “go in” and stop the bleeding"

..read more of this and other exciting, life changing stories from a life lived literally on the razor's edge by a surgeon.