His Good Luck
An officer was questioning a man on a table in the treatment room of the Emergency Room. The patient's feet in green socks stuck out of the white sheets. He had run into a woman's car on his motorcycle and had almost been run over by a truck. The truc
k driver stopped just in time. The officer asked him if he had read the motorcycle manual, as he did not drive the machine well. He told him he was very lucky to be alive. The young man admitted to his good luck. He was going to sell the machine as so
on as possible. He vomited. The nurse held his forehead.
He vomited.
The resident examined his abdomen and sent him to X-Ray. The
technician helped him on the table and proceeded to take many X-Rays in
different positions. She developed them and showed them to the Radiology Department in the Emergency Room. Then she too
k some more with a triangular pillow under his shoulders.
The physicians in the Radiology Department had placed the films in
the viewer and looked at several through an especially strong lamp. Both the chief and his resident studied them.
Finally the resident decided he would take a look at the patient...a real concession for him.
X-rays taken of his skull and shoulders.
He did and called a conference with his junior residents. One sutured the man's forehead. Mostly the trouble was from a fractured zygoma...the overriding was due to a previous injury...it was fortunate that his eyesight was not impaired.
The young man said he did not deserve to be so lucky. It was interesting that the figure on the gurney was very small...really out of proportion to the officer, and that figure grew larger as one's interest focused on him, the patient.
Radiologists study films in viewer.
Department of Emergency Medicine
