Greatest Hits 2009

The end is nigh – for 2009 anyway.

2009 was a gargantuan year for ‘Life in the Fast Lane’.

We moved to a new website and, in the process, completely disappeared off the Google radar. We have seen the birth (by traumatic caesarean section) of the Utopian College of Emergency for Medicine, which will undoubtedly mature into a dominant force in the (tiny) world of medical satire (even if we are the only ones who ‘get it’…). The LitFL team has gone forth and multiplied, so we can now deliver an even wider range of expertise, insight, medical geekery, futile attempts at being humo(u)rous and sheer abject randomness to our handful of long-suffering readers with even greater frequency. We’ve welcomed the growth of the global emergency medicine blogosphere with the rise of impressive and exciting blogs like Academic Life in Emergency Medicine, The Poison Review and the EmCrit blog. And, finally, we’ve been overjoyed by our flourishing Web 2.0 relationships with the readers of our humble blog from all over the world.

As we all know, the end of any year is really all about ‘Best Of’s', ‘Top Tens’, ‘Greatest Hits’ and ‘just who is the Christmas No.1?’ (Rage Against the Machine of course, eat your heart out Simon Cowell). So here is a look – from a purely popularist viewpoint – at what have been the greatest hit ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ posts of 2009. The irony of this viewpoint, given that our fan club is peerless in its minuteness, is not lost on us.

Bring on the random medical eclectica…

Whose greatest hits? Ours of course!

10. Bringing Home the Bacon

Bacon was an important food that didn’t feature in Food for Emergencies. However bacon remains a therapeutic essential, as shown in this post that @movinmeat called ‘Awful and horrible and disgusting‘ – which, in the world of emergency docs, is actually a huge compliment.

9. Pulmonary Puzzle #002

We think Clinical Case-based Q&As are a great fun way to learn medicine and start discussion. Since Dr. Paul Young joined the LitFL team this series has really ‘amped up’ and reached new heights. Follow the twists and turns of this incredible case, which was also featured among the Pulmonology and Critical Care Cases at ClinicalCases.org.

8. Leonardo Da Vinci, first Anatomist

Borrowing on the writings of Sherwin Nuland, this post puts forward the case for Leonardo Da Vinci (who like all really terrific people was a lefty…) as the forgotten father of modern anatomy.

7. Laws for the Navigation of Life

The late Peter Safar, the man who gave us the ‘Kiss of Life’, is sorely missed. Fortunately we can still learn from his ‘Laws for the Navigation of Life‘, subtitled ‘The Creed of the Sociopathic Obsessive Compulsive’.

6. Neurological Mind-boggler #001

Learning – short, simple, and to-the-point – just how it should be. Let your mind be boggled!

5. Fear and Loathing in ER and ICU

The late Steven Wells pulls no punches in his description of life as a patient suffering from lymphoma in the ER and the ICU: “Nearly dying sucks. But not as much as being in intensive care”.

4. Dear Potential Patient

On May 04 2008, The Courier Mail in Queensland published a powerful letter from an unnamed emergency doctor. It began simply, ‘Dear Potential Patient…”

3. Top 10 Foreign Bodies

An unrivaled collection of radiographic images of things in places decidedly foreign. Rumour has it that most of these images are actually X-rays of @sandnsurf himself.

2. Box Jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri)

Like any self-respecting human beings the LitFL team are fascinated by those of our biological brethren that can sting, hurt and poison us. Chief among these bad-boy beasties is the multi-tentacled box jellyfish (Chironex fleckeri), perhaps the most venomous animal on the planet. And, yes, its an Aussie.

1. All-Time Worst Non-Emergencies

The collective experience of the LitFL team allowed us to build this definitive list of ‘All Time Worst Non-Emergencies‘ – and believe us, we’ve seen more than a few hardcore non-emergencies in our time. Easily the most popular LitFL post in history, ’nuff said.

From the LitFL team, all the best for the New Year!