Day 175: The Rest of the Story

When I was a kid I remember my Dad reading to us from a book written by Paul Harvey called The Rest of the Story. It recounts true but little known stories of well known people such as Albert Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Lindberg and Stevie Wonder. I was always amazed at the things you could learn about someone or something that you thought you already knew pretty well. If you’ve never read it, I highly recommend it as an easy and interesting read.

Well last time I wrote, I told a story...but I didn’t tell the whole story. Here is the rest of the story...

As you recall, on Day 172, I taught my students to put in IV’s and then I let them practice on me. What I didn’t tell you was that before I “donated my arm to science” I actually practiced on them first. That’s right, Mr. Doctor from America was asked to show his students how it was done. So I took an IV catheter, isolated a vein, and went for it. Not only did I miss the first time but after deciding to try again, I missed again. After the second miss, one of my students motioned for me to sit down and then he of course stuck the IV in my arm on his first try. So much for my $200,000 medical education and my pride. Actually, I didn’t feel too bad, given that I have only put in about 10 IV’s my whole career. I was proud of my students for doing better than I did.

So I can’t put in an IV. That doesn’t make me a bad doctor does it? Now if I was an anesthesiologist and failed to place an IV on an Afghan with bulging veins, that might be a different story. Hey what can I say, it’s not what I do every day...but if you need a circumcision or a mole removed, give me a call and I think you will be impressed.

Anyway, today I returned to the classroom to continue teaching my police students. I had them practice placing IV’s on each other. They did pretty well, but it definitely wasn’t the place for someone who can’t stand the sight of blood. The first guy that had one put in, must have lost a liter of blood (slight exaggeration). The picture below shows the mess after it was almost cleaned up. Imagine double the amount of blood you see on the ground on the table and the guy’s entire forearm covered. Yes it was bloody, but at least he got it in the vein. It is neat to see these guys learning some basic medical skills that down the road might save their life or that of one of their colleagues.