locum | street-fighting med student

Last weekend, I was doing locum in A&E and my first patient to clock in was someone familiar to me. Not very familiar, but recognizable.

He smiled. "Hi, Dr." He lifted one of his bloody hand. No, bloody here not being the discriminative adjective more of a descriptive one. Bandage around his ring finger.

He was one of the bright student that I had taught previously. Bright up till the moment he sat beside me in the consultation room.

"What happened?"
"I think I got an open fracture" And he went on smiling, bordering on laughing.
Seriously, to me, this is one of the rare positive response of having an open fracture.

"What happened?"
"Sir, I was playing streetfighter with my colleague, initially we were punching boxes, then we decided to punch each other..."
"Oh... Nothing else to do?"
"Exam next week..."

As I typed in briefly the history, I opened the X-ray readily available in the system.

Now, that's the X-ray of finger of a street-fighter, which they don't show that vividly in the animated game.

He may also lose a 'surgeon's hand' if complications arise.

Seriously as a medical student, I did a lot of crazy stuff, some more illegal than others. I almost got barred from staying in the hostel. Nevertheless, I never came close to injuring myself, that's for sure.

P.S. First, do no harm - to ourself!!