The Curse of Introspection on Friday the 13th
My ER shift started in chaos. “Does it have something to do with today being Friday the 13 th ?” I wondered, although not really being all that superstitious, I knew it was just a momentary thought. On bed 13 lay Aleya, a 13-year-old previously normal and healthy girl, youngest of 13 siblings. To add insult to injury she got ‘tubed’ (intubated), unsurprisingly, at 1300 hours. But I get ahead of myself, so let’s start at the beginning. For the past 13 days Aleya had been running ‘very high’ fever, not confirmed by a thermometer. “Jism bahut garam tha” [body felt really hot] said her 18-year-old brother, repeating the fever-detection-by-hand story that I must have heard over a thousand times already since starting work in the pediatric ER, just a few years ago. I didn’t say anything to Aleya’s brother then as I was tired of getting on the soap box about inaccuracy of that approach for fever detection. “Get a thermometer next...