In r/emergencymedicine, an ER rotation in a lower-income Caribbean setting highlights paper charting, broken CT, and medication scarcity, alongside peer support normalizing that some patients die despite best efforts.
I'm spending this month in an ER in a lower income Caribbean country.
They don't have EMR and only use paper charting, the hospital CT scanner has been broken for weeks, meds I'd normally use as first line therapies aren't available...
Sounds like that patient was going to die regardless of what you did.
Paraphrasing Colonel Henry Blake, but rule number one of medicine is patients die. Rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one.
We might be able to delay death sometimes, but it's gonna happen.
My patient coded and died 15 minutes after I left
rule number one of medicine is patients die. Rule number two is that doctors can't change rule number one.
You can be perfect and they still die. Part of the gig.
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