eager

i hated vascular surgery. part of the problem was that it was so busy and we were ridiculously understaffed (except for a short while). but i also simply didn't like it. then there was the small issue of incredibly long and taxing operations. i found them long and taxing. so one day when a junior showed unbridled enthusiasm for a vascular case, i didn't have the heart to tell him he was in for severe disillusionment.

the medical officer called me late one evening. he was so excited he could hardly speak. i knew he had a particular interest in surgery and had even mentioned to me he was considering specialising one day. his present excitement was related to a gunshot wound patient he had just seen in casualties. finally he calmed down enough to tell me what it was all about.

"bongi, the bullet went straight through his knee. there is a massive hematoma behind his knee and there are no distal pulses. and that's not all!" he saved the best for last. "the hematoma is pulsating!!"

he was excited because he was going to be seeing his first vascular repair of a popliteal artery. if he had ever seen one before, let me assure you, he wouldn't be excited at all. he would be dreading what was to come. i didn't have the heart to disillusion him. i simply told him to get the patient to theater as fast as possible and call me as soon as he was ready. i then considered crying. vascular cases took forever and it was already almost midnight. i wouldn't be sleeping at all that night.

i walked into theater. the medical officer was bouncing off the walls, poor guy. he just didn't have an idea. he informed me he had never seen a gunshot of an artery before. i wanted to say that that was bleedingly obvious, but the pun would be wasted on him in his state. i just smiled sympathetically. after this night i suspected he'd be a broken man.

we started the operation. now when doing a repair of an artery that has been shot to pieces, the first part of the operation has all the glamour and glory of any number of television medical dramas. there is blood and gore and bucket loads of adrenaline. as i struggled to get the artery under control i could see through the corner of my eye that the medical officer could almost not contain his excitement. i chuckled a bit to myself. i did it quietly and behind my mask so as not to break his spirit any more than the operation was about to. you see the first part takes mere minutes and then it is down to the long slog of replacing the damaged piece of artery with an appropriately prepared piece of vein harvested from the other leg. this part of the operation takes hours and is tedious, especially if your sole duty is to hold the wound open so the surgeon can see.

"hold the wound open better! i can't see!" i shouted. poor guy. for me to access the popliteal artery i was sitting on a chair working from an angle up into the area behind the knee. the medical officer was standing on the other side and literally leaning back on the retractors. every time he tried to peek into the operative field he inadvertently let slip with the retractors and the entire wound closed. only one of us could see at a time. seeing that i was doing the operation, i thought it best that that person be me. he somehow didn't like this idea.

and so the operation progressed through the night until the poor medical officer was totally disillusioned. when we finally walked out of theater to greet the rising sun i felt somehow i should encourage him, but what could i say? he had tasted vascular and just as it had done with me many many times, it had left a bad taste in his mouth. as i looked at his downcast face i could almost hear what he was thinking.

'dermatology seems like a good idea.'