'You should have informed me'

That was her case presentation next day. In paediatrics.

It was a 16 years old girl who was her patient. Extracting details from the family members and the patient was quite a deal. Furthermore, the patient wouldn't let you examine her. She somehow managed to get the information and finished the examination.

She checked out the file. The findings were almost similar to what she had perceived. So she started thinking of differential diagnosis. She tried to consult residents - wards, opd, PICU, NICU, labour room, even hostels. No, they were not available. After that, she confronted a series of lectures and went back home, tired and prepared for her case.

Next morning, she went to the hospital early. The residents were taking round and she followed them to her patient. And guess what?? The Liver, which she mentioned as non palpable, was now palpable - upto 3 cm. She rechecked the file. The previous reports were same as hers. But the new examination by the senior resident mentioned palpable liver. And how can you justify a 3 cm enlarged liver as a non-palpable one?  She consulted residents NOW, and they told her to put differential diagnosis as completely different from what she had put. One resident even scolded for not consulting in advance, especially when the case was to be presented in front of the Head Of the Department. Oh, yeah.

She got worried. She wasn't prepared for this. Okay. So it was the time now. She asked patient to get ready so as to reach the presentation room in time. And there started a time for Cinderella to get ready. The patient's mother took almost 20 minutes just to comb her hair. Wow. Meanwhile, she continuously requested the sister to remove the pint from the patient since it was not needed. But the sister would attend the patient only after she was done with the previous one. And no, you can't remove it on your own, else, the sister would start accusing you in front of the whole damn department, and the whole damn patients, and their relatives in the ward.

Okay. Even this got done. Now our Cinderella felt giddiness, suddenly. Fine. Arrange for a wheelchair. She got it from the other ward. And the moment she started pushing it, the sister shouted, "Hey, hey, you. Wait there. How dare you do this? Who permitted you for this?" She was like, 'what??' Then the sister explained that it was for a 'masi' to push the wheelchair and a student cannot do that. Wow. So, where's this masi ?

She ran for a masi now. The time was already running out. She asked in all 3 wards, panicking. She finally found the masi n requested her to come with her for a while since it was the HOD's case. But she forgot, that was a MASI. The masi yelled back telling the job pressure she had and how busy she was and all. After a lot of begging, the masi was finally convinced to go with her. 

By this time, the patient was tired and sleepy. She convinced the patient and begged to stay just for a while with her. Okay. They came outside the ward. Now the lift, it wouldn't come up easily. That took about 5 minutes to get the patient from the first floor to the ground floor.

She was late. By the time she reached the hall with the patient and her relatives and the masi, The HOD had already left, angry and annoyed. And the co-students started shouting, 'where the hell have you been?', 'HOD was so damn angry', 'blah blah blah'.  

Now was the sorry session. She went to the HOD office and apologised. What? Noway, you can't argue there or explain anything. All you gotta say is 'I'm sorry'. To which she got back stuff like, 'That's what you have to learn. None of you follows schedule. You people disobey the rules. Moreover, you should have informed me about the lecture. Today's session is cancelled'. 'Right. Tell the resident that you're going to meet the HOD, and they'll screw you right there and you want us to inform you. Thanks for the honour.' she growled.

She took the patient back to the ward. The residents knew the story by now. She told them the real story and they argued back,"You should have informed us. Now who will bear the consequences?" and scolded the nurse for not supporting her. To which the nurse replied, "She should have informed me. I have to look after so many patients. Even the other sister... blah blah blah !!"

The nurse in turn scolded the masi for all the consequences, for what the masi came to her and said in a real desi style, "I would have hurried up things. I wasn't knowing it was so important. blah blah blah.. blah blah.. blah blah.... You should have informed me."

Aaaaaaaaaah !!!

Ya, right.