Our clinic is open 7 days a week except Thanksgiving and Xmas. I'm on call this weekend, part of call duty is working in our urgent care section. Last night, Friday night, half an hour before we close at 8:00 PM, a very big young guy (he's 6' 1", 339 lb, works as a bouncer) comes in. He's hurting pretty bad from a groin hernia that has been there for a month and hurting fairly bad for 2 days. It won't reduce (go back in place), he's in too much pain, but otherwise he doesn't look too bad. He doesn't have a fever and his blood tests don't indicate a raging infection. I talk to the surgeon on call, who has me send him to the ER, where they do an ultrasound and determine that the protruding material is inner fat and not bowel, so it's not an emergency. They send him out with pain meds and instructions to see a surgeon on Monday. Today, Saturday, his mother calls, demanding that I get a surgeon to fix his hernia TODAY!!!
We call back to tell her this is not possible, he answers, he's totally understanding & cool with it. But his mom is screaming in the background that she's gonna sue us if we don't get a surgeon to help him TODAY!! NAOW!!!!
I understand the whole Mama Bear instinct but we're family docs, we don't order surgeons around. Best we can do is tell her to take him to a different ER and see if she has any better luck. Or go back to the original ER if fever starts up or he can't poop all of a sudden. Again, he's cool with that, but he hangs up with his mom still shrieking in the background. Poor guy...
We call back to tell her this is not possible, he answers, he's totally understanding & cool with it. But his mom is screaming in the background that she's gonna sue us if we don't get a surgeon to help him TODAY!! NAOW!!!!
I understand the whole Mama Bear instinct but we're family docs, we don't order surgeons around. Best we can do is tell her to take him to a different ER and see if she has any better luck. Or go back to the original ER if fever starts up or he can't poop all of a sudden. Again, he's cool with that, but he hangs up with his mom still shrieking in the background. Poor guy...
Comment