Burn Ward

The burn ward came and went. The whole week was so fast and incredible that it felt like longer; you know that kind of time where so much is jam-packed that the morning seems as if it were the entire day yesterday (until you think about it).

I have to say the most amazing part of it seems to be how elite the doctors there were: they do everything. There's all the spectra of care all in one section of the hospital all for burns. In increasing intensity, they have a clinic, an inpatient ward, an ICU and an operating room all staffed by the same team of doctors who take care of it all. I get the feeling that this is way higher than most specialties but I've yet to be able to compare it to anything so for now I'll say that it was impressive to see doctors who were putting IV lines like any nurse, a few minutes later were harvesting skin and implanting it like the most advanced burn clinics in the world.

It was an honour to see people who were excellent do their thing.

Even if the head was a bit. . . .strident. He's well-known to be heavy-worded but fair. He definitely knows what needs to be done but is also fairly condescending when dealing with newer people: he will call you out (and talk you down) when you do something without him asking you to but he will also call you slow if you're not doing anything at all or take no initiative.

I took what I could from the experience and that was A LOT. I learned so much from physiology of burns to care and treatment to management. He really was a pro (as was the whole team) in spite of his attitude.

I was able to see some pretty insane cases too - one involved a girl of 2-something years who had her boyfriend not like something she did - so he set a blanket on fire (by putting gas or something on it? Unclear exactly how) and threw it on her. She was severely burned to 47% of her body (50%+ means you are not likely to survive) and lost all her fingers. She couldn't blink because her eyelids had scarred to the point where they were contracted and barely moveable. She had no lips. It was tragic and I was glad to be able to help her, even in a minimal capacity.

The learning goes on. Would I like to work in a burn ward? Probably. We'll have to see. The funny thing is, I did more surgery in one week at a burn ward than a whole month at that hospital I have a lot of spite for that I did my rotation in.