Emergencies

There's nothing quite like residency. It's such a remarkably inflexible system with only just the number of residents to cover all the responsibilities of patient care. When an emergency happens, as unfortunately has befallen several times in the last few months, there isn't much room in the system. We work until 4am, take a nap of several hours, drive down to grieving and bereaved family, send a flurry of emails to plan for the clinical week, sleep early so we can drive back to the hospital before dawn. We work as if there is no reprieve, work with the attitude that life will keep hurling obstacles and disasters at us and we will persevere for our patients, families, friends, and the people we love for there is no other end than to do what is right.