Last week we had a baby who was referred for cardiac evaluation come back with a report saying she had Tetralogy of Fallot and needs a BT shunt. The parents had not gotten it done yet. Still, the baby wasn't blue. Because she was too anaemic to have enough deoxygenated haemoglobin to be cyanotic.
I had to watch Something the Lord Made that night. It is the heart-touching story of how B(T)T shunt was developed. If you don't cry with Vivian Thomas at the end, you should probably check your cardiac functioning.
In the backdrop, there are dogs. Blalock and Thomas would perform their surgical experiments on dogs. Countless dogs who have lost lives for (human and animal) science. Thank you dogs!
Talking about dogs, there are cats too. I found this post on reddit.
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| The Litterbox Hero |
Fucking science.
On the other hand scientists are marching to protect science. And being rational is increasingly being viewed as treacherous and anti-nationalistic.
People just can't understand.
I had just figured out a name for the problem one of our patients who got his tissues necrosed after an IM diclo injection had. It was Nicolau Syndrome (or livedoid dermatitis or embolia cutis medicamentosa - remember the name that can make you sound really good).
And there walked in a patient who had worked too much and was having pain in the forearms and knees. He had to get an injection. It didn't matter to him whether I gave him 3 mL normal saline or 20 mg morphine. They just have to get injected. Good luck talking them out with Nicolau Syndrome or even anaphylaxis.
When the pleasures and shortcuts are so tempting, why would people prefer the rigour of science or protocols.
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