The Cafeteria is Closing

"Okay, lets call it. Time of death, 6:47 pm." We had just been trying to resuscitate a patient from a cardiac arrest for approximately 15 maybe 20 minutes when I the 2nd year Medicine resident on call in the hospital that night and carrying the code beeper, decided to cease all efforts early, rather than after the typical 30 minutes. The patient as I recall, was already on a ventilator due to respiratory failure and probably had some type of malignancy, so the likelihood of recovery in my opinion (after all, I had been out of medical school for over one whole year) was very low. But that's not why I "called" the code early. The fact was, the hospital cafeteria was going to close at 7:00 and if myself and the interns on my team missed dinner, that would be it until breakfast the next day at morning sign in rounds with the chief resident. Continuing the heroics even another 10minutes theoretically might have saved this patient's life but it most certainly would have meant an empty stomache for myself and fellow houseofficers who had already worked a full day and had a full night ahead of us in the University Hospital. What was I becoming?

I am thirteen years now into private practice as a cardiologist without time or talent to write a book but who has decided to start this blog to give an insiders view of the practice of medical care and medical education at least in the midwestern United States and recount some of my experiences beginning as a naive medical student, thru residency training and fellowship to my current position as a staff cardiologist. I can't count the number of times I've come home from work and relayed a story to my wife about something that happened in the office or the hospital and watched her practically gasp as she tried to fathom as a medical "layperson" what I was telling her. "If people only knew" or "you should write a book" are a couple of her typical responses. I'm sure I'm writing this as much for me as I am for you.

I'm not certain how often I'll be able to post but I'll try to write at least once or twice a week. I've got lots of material and more becomes available almost daily. I'll start my next post with how I got started as a first year medical student.