Casualty Chaos
Having finished four successive night duties in the casualty, I was eagerly waiting to get back to day duty from the following morning. Day duties were chaotic, most of the cases being ‘pseudo emergencies’, patients referred from peripheral centres for further management, wound dressings, abscess drainage and the like. Even though night duties were relatively free, spending the night in one’s own room, on one’s own bed is an extravagance – a luxury you underestimate till you spend a week in the government hospital, being on night duty.
I found myself yawning at eleven pm that night. We were out of gossip material/books/movies/people to discuss. My male co-intern did not like being woken up once asleep. He jumped at the opportunity and said, “You girls look tired and sleepy. Sleep till 3.00 am. In case of any emergency after that, sister will wake you up.” The staff nurse nodded her head in agreement.
I sleepily walked towards the duty doctor’s room with my female co-intern. The room was locked from within. We knocked. No reply.
Knock again
A sleepy voice from within asked, “who is it?”
“Intern” replied my friend, while I was wondering who I was.
After a minute passed by the door opened and we could make out a shapeless figure on the other side of the door. “Oh, you are here to sleep?” she asked. (What else would we be doing here in the middle of the night, you moron??!)
“It is always wise to keep the door locked. This place is not safe. Anybody can walk in.” We chose to ignore her wise words and propped ourselves in the bed available and tried to fall asleep, while she rushed back to lock the door, as if there were bandits waiting to enter from outside.
Thus we would have company for the night. This security guru who would spent the night with us was a postgraduate on call. Disregarding her very presence, we were sound asleep in no time.
I was rudely woken up by a blaring noise. It was like someone had driven a truck into the room crashing all its walls. It was then that I realised that it was a cell phone ringing. Apparently it belonged to our unwanted guest in the room. She mumbled something about being there in a few minutes and got ready to go. Meanwhile I had already descended into the deep abyss of sleep once again, blissfully unaware of the room mate making an exit.
After what seemed like an hour, I felt the room around me quiver. It was the same security freak, who was now trying to jolt us awake. Both of us sprang back to life wondering what had just happened. “ You don’t want people walking away with your belongings while you guys sleep like this. You should be more responsible. Get up and lock the door behind me. Do not open the door till you’re sure it is me. I will knock on the door thrice.”
She rapped on the door thrice to show us her secret identity code. I wanted to throttle her then and there. She would never get any more night calls and hence never trouble innocent people who wished to sleep at night. But I was so heavy-eyed with sleep that I let her live. She walked away as my exasperated friend got up and closed the door behind her.
“You know what? If I lock the door now, we will most certainly have to get up and unlock the door” she said, as though she had just discovered a new theory for the origin of species.
“Yeah. So?” were the only two words I managed to let slip from my already asleep brain.
“So, what if I leave the door open? She’ll realise that it is open, walk in and go to bed. We need not disturb our sleep till 3 a.m.”
Realization had dawned upon me. What a brilliant idea. The very prospect of being uninterrupted till the said time brought a serene calm to my annoyed mind. I gave her an encouraging nod of approval. I could not think why anybody would want to come into the duty doctors’ room to steal anything of any value there. (The condition of the tattered room and its belongings would be a blog in itself)
And thus we plunged into the chasm of sleep, unplagued by the mosquitoes or the sound of the rain lashing on the window panes. Such was peace.
Jolt…shriek….jolt
I was startled and sat up bolt upright. She-who- must-not-be-named was shaking us awake. She had returned from her night call and was fumbling around the dimly lit room, rummaging the contents of her bag. Before I realised what had happened, she screamed into our very ears, “ something is wrong with the door. I could enter regardless of the bolt being fastened. Someone must have meddled with the lock. Thank God my bag and all its contents are safe. I woke you up so that you could check on your belongings.”
She pushed our bags into our hands and said “look for your valuables”. I searched. I searched with all hope that I would find a knife in it. Or a pen knife at the least. Maybe a scalpel. Somehow left/forgotten in my bag. It wasn’t there. She would live. Yet again.
We checked on the time. It was 3.30 a.m. Just as we realised that we were incharge of casualty, a student sister walked in. There was a case. Some family had had a drunken brawl and the good for nothing son-in-law had clobbered his father-in-law’s skull with an axe. Leaving the door-lock-freak to her fate, we rushed towards casualty.
“Lock the door behind you. Its not safe here” were the apt parting words we found for her.
P.S – the rest of the night was spent in the head injury drama. We did not see her after that night. I wonder if must be locking her door somewhere right now !
I found myself yawning at eleven pm that night. We were out of gossip material/books/movies/people to discuss. My male co-intern did not like being woken up once asleep. He jumped at the opportunity and said, “You girls look tired and sleepy. Sleep till 3.00 am. In case of any emergency after that, sister will wake you up.” The staff nurse nodded her head in agreement.
I sleepily walked towards the duty doctor’s room with my female co-intern. The room was locked from within. We knocked. No reply.
Knock again
A sleepy voice from within asked, “who is it?”
“Intern” replied my friend, while I was wondering who I was.
After a minute passed by the door opened and we could make out a shapeless figure on the other side of the door. “Oh, you are here to sleep?” she asked. (What else would we be doing here in the middle of the night, you moron??!)
“It is always wise to keep the door locked. This place is not safe. Anybody can walk in.” We chose to ignore her wise words and propped ourselves in the bed available and tried to fall asleep, while she rushed back to lock the door, as if there were bandits waiting to enter from outside.
Thus we would have company for the night. This security guru who would spent the night with us was a postgraduate on call. Disregarding her very presence, we were sound asleep in no time.
I was rudely woken up by a blaring noise. It was like someone had driven a truck into the room crashing all its walls. It was then that I realised that it was a cell phone ringing. Apparently it belonged to our unwanted guest in the room. She mumbled something about being there in a few minutes and got ready to go. Meanwhile I had already descended into the deep abyss of sleep once again, blissfully unaware of the room mate making an exit.
After what seemed like an hour, I felt the room around me quiver. It was the same security freak, who was now trying to jolt us awake. Both of us sprang back to life wondering what had just happened. “ You don’t want people walking away with your belongings while you guys sleep like this. You should be more responsible. Get up and lock the door behind me. Do not open the door till you’re sure it is me. I will knock on the door thrice.”
She rapped on the door thrice to show us her secret identity code. I wanted to throttle her then and there. She would never get any more night calls and hence never trouble innocent people who wished to sleep at night. But I was so heavy-eyed with sleep that I let her live. She walked away as my exasperated friend got up and closed the door behind her.
“You know what? If I lock the door now, we will most certainly have to get up and unlock the door” she said, as though she had just discovered a new theory for the origin of species.
“Yeah. So?” were the only two words I managed to let slip from my already asleep brain.
“So, what if I leave the door open? She’ll realise that it is open, walk in and go to bed. We need not disturb our sleep till 3 a.m.”
Realization had dawned upon me. What a brilliant idea. The very prospect of being uninterrupted till the said time brought a serene calm to my annoyed mind. I gave her an encouraging nod of approval. I could not think why anybody would want to come into the duty doctors’ room to steal anything of any value there. (The condition of the tattered room and its belongings would be a blog in itself)
And thus we plunged into the chasm of sleep, unplagued by the mosquitoes or the sound of the rain lashing on the window panes. Such was peace.
Jolt…shriek….jolt
I was startled and sat up bolt upright. She-who- must-not-be-named was shaking us awake. She had returned from her night call and was fumbling around the dimly lit room, rummaging the contents of her bag. Before I realised what had happened, she screamed into our very ears, “ something is wrong with the door. I could enter regardless of the bolt being fastened. Someone must have meddled with the lock. Thank God my bag and all its contents are safe. I woke you up so that you could check on your belongings.”
She pushed our bags into our hands and said “look for your valuables”. I searched. I searched with all hope that I would find a knife in it. Or a pen knife at the least. Maybe a scalpel. Somehow left/forgotten in my bag. It wasn’t there. She would live. Yet again.
We checked on the time. It was 3.30 a.m. Just as we realised that we were incharge of casualty, a student sister walked in. There was a case. Some family had had a drunken brawl and the good for nothing son-in-law had clobbered his father-in-law’s skull with an axe. Leaving the door-lock-freak to her fate, we rushed towards casualty.
“Lock the door behind you. Its not safe here” were the apt parting words we found for her.
P.S – the rest of the night was spent in the head injury drama. We did not see her after that night. I wonder if must be locking her door somewhere right now !
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