Wednesday, June 18, 2008

for temporary relief of stress caused by onset of day in advertising



You'll think I am obsessed by blogs written by doctors, and maybe I am. In our business, if you have a bad day, an ad dies. But what docs have on the line is an actual person. I have to admire the cojones it takes to assume a job with that kind of responsibility.

Just as people make false assumptions about our work ("it's so creative"), I tend to imbue doctors with the unceasing reverence for the human body, the awe I imagine I'd feel in their shoes, if charged with reviving people instead of brand images. But docs who blog have disavowed me of this-- of course they joke on the job like everyone else does, albeit usually to other docs, not to their distressed patients. Their (sometimes sophomoric) humor in the face of medical emergency has the tonic effect of making my bad day seem a bit less horrific.

Like this post about a woman who came in with her arm rotated all the way around at the elbow which will make you feel better about whatever twisted brief you're working on today. (For xrays and complete writeup, see ER Stories.)

Here was a disturbing case we saw today. A middle aged lady made a diving save on the tennis court to make her point but fell hard on her elbow. Her arm was COMPLETELY twisted around at the elbow 180 degrees. It looked like is should have belonged to Plastic Man! YEOWCH!!! Luckily she had a good pulse and good range of motion of her hand.

She was amazingly in not that much pain considering how awful her arm looked. However the fracture was open (ie compound) and was going to need to go to the OR soon. Of course the ortho guy was over an hour away so we had to try to reduce it a bit. It took a BIG haematoma block (injecting lidocaine directly into the fracture) and a twisting of the arm that made sounds disturbing enough to make the strongest stomach turn. Good thing we rotated it back the normal way and not around accidentally for another twist! LOL

2 comments:

Joker said...

Truly, advertising has a myriad of double edged swords that give and take to keep everything balanced. Case in point, our sense of social responsibility, or lack of one is one of those swords. On one part it's frustrating to not make a difference in the world and on the other, well at least I'm not being depended on to save a limb.

Ad Broad, oldest working writer in advertising said...

Joker, thanks for these cogent thoughts, you've inspired a post, much obliged.