“I did my internship in internal medicine and residency in
neurology before laws existed to regulate resident hours. My first two years
were extremely brutal, working 110 to 120 hours/week, and up to 40 hours straight.
I got to witness colleagues collapse unconscious in the hallway during rounds,
and I recall once falling asleep in the bed of an elderly comatose woman while
trying to start an IV on her in the wee hours of the morning.”
“I ran a red light driving home in residency after a 36-hour
shift. Got pulled over. It was sobering: I was not fit to use my driver’s
license, but I had just been using my MEDICAL license for over a day non-stop!”…
“After a 36-hour shift, I fell asleep and began dreaming
while walking home — repeatedly. It was a four-block walk.”
“I fell asleep multiple times at the light at the
intersection right at my neighborhood after call. I would see home was close
and relax just enough. I had a baby, and I was so afraid of forgetting him in
the back seat if I ever had him with me I would put his bag in the front with
me and my stuff in the back with him. Luckily, nothing bad happened in either
situation, but I just got lucky.”
“I have fallen asleep at the wheel thousands of times since
medical school. I literally would wake up the next day in my work clothes and
not even remember leaving the hospital. I drive from 45 min to 4 hrs to rural
hospitals now and in training, currently working up to 7 straight 24s in a
row.”
“I was post-call after a 30-hour shift and rear-ended a car
while driving uphill. No one was hurt, but I remember the guy saying ” you hit
me driving up hill.”…
“I was so sleep deprived that I’d fall asleep while writing
patient notes and write my dreams into the notes. I’ve fallen asleep on a pile
of charts only to have the nurses cover me with blankets. I woke panicked
because I was hours behind in my work. I’ve fallen asleep standing up in
surgery and witnessed my attending doctors fall asleep while doing surgery. I
actually passed out at the end of a 36-hour shift and woke up on a stretcher in
the recovery room.”
“A dear friend from med school died during her neurosurgery
residency. Drove over a median into a tractor-trailer after a 30+ hour shift.
She left behind her family, including a twin sister and her fiance. She was
30.”…
“During internship, I was driving home after a 30-hour call.
It was dark and rainy out. The usual road I took home was closed, so after some
roundabout driving, I got on to the garden state parkway in NJ going in the
wrong direction. Thankfully a police car saw me and pulled me over as I
realized I was going into oncoming traffic. He escorted me all the way home.”
“I was working in the NICU and commuting 45 miles each way
to and from the hospital when I was involved in a serious car accident in which
my car was completely totaled. My program directors were upset that I did not
make it back to work the next day (as I had to deal with insurance, get a
rental car, etc.) Before this, I had a perfect driving record.”…
“I have gained easily a hundred pounds over the years in
part from eating to stay awake. The state police have woken me up on the side
of the road many times when I pulled off the highway to sleep because I
couldn’t stay awake until the next exit.”
Are these the doctors you want to see in the hospital?
Protect yourself and your loved ones. Always ask, “How long have you been on
your shift, Doc?”
Courtesy of Doximity
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