The critical care fellow during my ICU rotation was an army trauma surgeon who had done three tours in Iraq. He had a wealth of experiences and unbelievable stories from the war. One of the stories I particularly enjoyed was about blood. They only carried a limited amount of packed red blood cells for transfusions; when he was there, they didn't even have fresh frozen plasma (FFP) or platelets. However, most of what they saw was trauma: gun-shot wounds and improvised explosive devices. Such cases can require massive amounts of transfusion. But he said it was never a problem; if they needed blood, they would put out a call and the "walking blood bank" - soldiers - would line up to donate. The soldiers didn't know whether the blood was going to a comrade, a civilian, or an insurgent, and it didn't matter; they simply stuck out their arms to give. That story put a smile on my face.
The other thing that made me grin was that one of my friends is attending a wedding today. Ironic, isn't it, to get married on Independence Day. Happy 4th, everyone.
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In ancient Greece, the asclepion was a healing temple dedicated to Asclepius, the God of Medicine. Asclepius learned the art of surgery from the centaur Chiron and had the ability to raise the dead. The Rod of Asclepius is a roughhewn branch entwined with a single serpent.
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Hi! I am Craig Chen, a third year resident physician in anesthesiology at Stanford Hospitals and Clinics. I went to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. Prior to medical school, I studied philosophy and biology at Stanford University, along with a minor in creative writing.
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