She Prayed Every Day
Back in Minor Trauma, a resident sutured the leg of a woman who had been badly bitten by a wounded dog. She had gone into the middle of the street to care for the animal, and it turned on her ferociously. Her legs and hands were torn and deeply gouged. She cried that she did not know why this had happened to her because she prayed every day to keep herself from bodily harm.
The resident shot a syringe full of Novocain into her hands and legs. Assisted by a third-year medical student, the resident put in many sutures in her calf by doing a Z procedure. She howled. He said to his medical student, "It's better to let th
em yell and get finished than worry about medical problems like heart
trouble." The orderly held the woman's head and softly soothed her.
The technician assisted by pulling apart the sterile envelopes on the adjacent bed. The surgeon took the gauze out of the packages and worked as quickly as he could.
Department of Emergency Medicine
