If romantic fiction is any guide, any doctor looking for love would be advised to be an emergency room surgeon or deliver babies rather than practise colon resection or remove in-grown toenails. So says Irish Psychiatrist Brendan Kelly, who has probed at length into the burgeoning literary field of medical romance. In an offbeat letter […]
Author Archives: pithy
Painkiller is number one drug in India
According to the latest ORG survey Diclofenac painkiller brand Voveran is the most used drug in India displacing cough medications which till now were the topmost brand. This has already been the trend in other markets. One not so surprising drug in the topmost brand is Liv 52 an ayurvedic preparation from Himalaya. As reported […]
In queue
In a very busy emergency we were attending to a RTA (road traffic accident) victim having serious head injuries and other multiple injuries in terminal condition; totally ignoring a drunk having minor injuries who was waiting for his turn for a while. After hanging around observing his comment was- ” If he had been wearing […]
Chief O Complaint
Actual conversation (translated from Hindi) with a patient having Gastritis. Me: So what brings you here. He: I came by bus. Me: No, No. Whats your complaint? He: My wife; she sent me. Now the situation was begging for a leading question so- Me: You are having abdominal pain? He: Oooh yes. and then the […]
Gone to the dogs
Wonder what it was with dogs last week. Attended no less than seven or eight cases of dog bite in a single day. all shape and categories. Most didn’t require much other than cleaning of wounds and advise regarding vaccination and antibiotics. The situation of rabies being what it is in our country I always […]
Attending a summon
This week I attended a court for summon as a witness. I had treated a person who was assaulted by his neighbour for some petty reason about 4 years back. No great damage – a few laceration and abrasions which I had stitched and dressed and subsequently discharging him the same day. Armed with the […]
Dengue for surgeons
Despite what is in the textbooks Dengue patients do not always develop rashes till the platelet levels have fallen waay down and even then hemorrhage may be sudden. Today i saw a patient in emergency who was complaining of pain in right upper abdomen and had fever for last 2 days. I had a suspicion […]
Radiohead : music for ears
There i was minding my own business- lurking through this blog when i came across this post regarding Radiohead experiment in music retail. It is a great experiment and i hope it works out well for them. They leave the price to be paid totally upto you. I checked it out for myself- didn’t buy […]
Fever with headache
This being the dengue season all patients coming to the emergency with headache, fever or bodyache are sifted through with extra precaution. Going by numbers the incidence till now has been less than what it was in previous years but hasnt be low either. Depending on the clinical presentation and symptoms dengue can be divided […]
The 2007 Ig Nobel Prize winners
In case you weren’t already aware. The Ig Nobel prize for the year 2007 have been duly handed over in a ceremony on the October 4th. The Medicine Ig Nobel was awarded to Dan Meyer and Brian Witcombe for investigating the side-effects of swallowing swords. For the complete list Improbable or check them out in […]