A humbling reminder that will serve as antidote to hubris next time you decide to own the chest tube. Intercostal arteries don’t read anatomy textbooks.
Own the Chest Tube!
April 28, 2011 By 6 Comments
In this materialistic day and age you can never own too many things… It’s time to Own the Chest Tube!
Once Were Warriors
January 29, 2010 By 1 Comment
Blood slowly dripped from two linear slits on the left side of the man’s chest. He focused on the doctor with a wide eyed stare and spoke in an anxious whisper:
“Doc, don’t let me die… don’t let me die, doc.”
The Patient is Ballooning Up…
January 4, 2010 By 2 Comments
A 36 year-old immunosuppressed male was infected with swine-origin influenza virus requiring mechanical ventilation. Overnight the inspiratory pressures needed to maintain his tidal volume had progressively increased and his face had become markedly swollen.
Broken-hearted chest drain
December 3, 2009 By 3 Comments
This 86 year old male presented with shortness of breath. He developed a complication after insertion of a left chest drain.
Do you know John Hunter?
September 19, 2009 By 1 Comment
The house officer looked at the film on the light box and thought of the elderly physician resting in bed across the corridor. Despite two previous chest drains, a pneumothorax persisted around the left lung. To make matters worse, one of the holes in the side of the remaining chest tube was in that ‘no [...]
