ABC News: Dramatic Sea Rescue: Sick Teen Saved

Laura Montero never thought her fun cruise to Mexico would end on a U.S. naval carrier surrounded by 3,000 sailors.The 14-year-old owes her life to the men and women of the USS Ronald Reagan, one of the largest aircraft carriers in the Navy, who saved her in a mission worthy of Hollywood script.

Montero was aboard the Dawn Princess cruise ship off the coast of Baja, Mexico, Saturday when her appendix burst.

“It was a matter of life and death so it wasn’t very good at all,” said Montero’s mother, Trudy LaField.

The crew of the Dawn Princess put out an SOS, and the U.S. Navy heeded the call.

» eleven nails. Emergency Department

Yikes.

In medicine it’s often hard to tell what your peers and co-workers think about you, personally and professionally. We all work hard to keep an above-board polite but distant interaction, and that’s to everyones’ benefit; nobody wants the kind of interpersonal strife a less-than-friendly environment could bring.

In the last two weeks I’ve made another doctor’s day, and a nurse made mine.

I’m slowly getting to the age where I need an internist, and I asked one of our ‘old-school’ docs if he would mind opening his full and closed practice for me. He smiled as he said ‘absolutely’, and smiled the rest of the day in the ED, and not because I’m such a peach of a person. I recognized the feeling, summarized as ‘people who work with me think enough of me to seek me out when they need help’. It’s terrifically flattering, really.

A nurse I’ve worked with for years in a professionally-cordial way asked me for some personal help the other day, and I had that same smile for the rest of the day, a nurse I work with chose me for help.

It’s flattering, moreso because it’s not meant to be.

I had the temerity to point out some less-than-effective nursing behavior before, and was threatened with a range of personal revenge up to and including threatened (but not acted upon) unprofessional behavior.  Mine was mild compared to Dr. Shadowfax’s, with the tag line:

Movin’ Meat: Death of a thousand little cuts

…
But the rest of the day was no different. Note that during this whole time the nurses weren’t exactly jumping on the other patients, either. Getting anything done was like pulling teeth. I hate to rag on nurses, since without them I get nothing done, and many a good nurse has saved my ass. But good lord it’s infuriating when you are stuck with the “B” team.

I predict his local nursing mafia will make him Persona Non Grata, and he’s going to have to kiss a lot of B-team backside to get out of this one.  (And, we’ve all been there, I’ve just actively censored myself before posting.)

So, syonara Shadowfax, it’s been nice to know you.

Link via Dr. Schwab, it’s “Straight, No Chaser“, Men’s Acapella from Indiana University. It’s also a very enjoyable 3:40!

I like Acapella, and this will go into the Christmas links on the left.

Odysseys of George

Now, I present to you, Grand Rounds 4.12 with a diving theme. Gear up your booties and wetsuits and carry along your tanks as we backroll into the depths of the medical blogsphere.

Nicely done, and beautiful diving pictures along with it!

Change of Shift, Vol. 2, Number 13 // Emergiblog
Welcome to the last-edition-before-Christmas Change of Shift!

• Price
• Quality
• Access

Pick any two.

The first is one I link every year, the British NHS’s Twelve STI’s of Christmas, very funny and Not Safe for Work (NSFW):

The second is from our own CDC, and it’s am okay song, but not nearly as interesting, the 12 Ways to Health.  (I haven’t gotten a screen capture of that one yet).

Thanks to our Pearl Harbor vets.

I’m a big fan of helmets…

(Photo with permission).

Doctor Geek, M.D. » Grand Rounds is here!

The weekly roundup of the best blog posts of medbloggers is here! Thanks to Nick for the Pre-Rounds interview which I hope will be there shortly… I’ve felt more generous as I realized that caring for your kids on vacation is harder than your usual life, and after noodling on the submissions over the last 3 days, I can’t find a theme, so I’ve included every post submitted to me, in chronological order, other than my favorite post:

Enjoy.

I’m the featured interview on the Doctor Anonymous show tomorrow night:

Doctor Anonymous: The GruntDoc Interview
This week, The Doctor Anonymous Show welcomes the one and only GruntDoc who authors GruntDoc: Ramblings of an Emergency Physician in Texas….

Join us on Thursday, December 6th, 2007 at 10PM Eastern Standard Time where we will talk about this and a whole lot more. You can also join us in the live chat room (the show within the show) or even call into the show to ask us a question. The chat room worked for the last show. Let’s hope it works again. You’ll just have to tune in to find out. Check here tomorrow for details.

I listened to the last one, and had fun in the chat room with some of the Usual Suspects from Pownce and Facebook (online communities for those of you with analog friends).

A word to the wise: if you are planning to listen, and more importantly are going to want to log on in the chat room, sign in early to the blogtalk radio link because there’s a new user registration that takes a few minutes.

Hope you’re there.

Update: I had fun, and thanks to all who listened, to Dr. Val and Scanman for calling in, and mostly to Dr. Anonymous for letting me talk about myself for 45 minutes.

I mean, really.