Out of the Woods

"Code Team, to the CT Scanner. Code Team, to the CT Scanner."

As the voice of the hospital operator echoed the familiar call to action, myself and one of the radiology residents jumped up from our chairs and dashed out of the resident reading room and across the hall to the CT scanner.

When a code is called in a hospital, organized chaos quickly follows. Within seconds, swarms of white coats pour through stair well doors. Nurses with crash carts run through halls. The urgency is palpable.

When myself and the radiology resident got to the patient, the code team was already there (I swear they can apparate) assessing the situation. An ICU patient sent for imaging had semi-consciously pulled out his ET tube and NG tube. He was now in the process of desatting as all of the oxygen molecules dissociated from their hemoglobin chaperones, with no new recruits coming from the lungs.

Last block I did an elective in radiology. Which means I was out of the medical trenches for the past few weeks, safely tucked away in dimly lit reading rooms aglow with the light of high definition monitors. While I am not considering a career in radiology, I did learn a lot and it was interesting to explore a field of medicine I have never really learned much about before. But whenever I toyed with the idea of not going into clinical medicine, something (like a code being called) reminded me which side of healthcare I want to play for.

Pulmonology and anesthesia soon showed up and the patient was reintubated. I sat back and watched intently as the emergent situation was quickly resolved. As we walked back into the reading room after the patient was stable, the radiology resident mumbled, "Man, I sure don't miss that." I smiled, realizing just how much I did.