The only thing between an intern on night float and panic is their senior resident. The only way the senior resident can communicate consistently is through their pager. So when this started happening to my senior resident's pager, there was silence. In moments of panic we tend to revert to our basic instincts. First we tried turning it around to try to read it better. Then we pressed on buttons randomly. I shook it.
But when we got a text page from someone, presumably important and related to a patient, that we could make no sense of, we started panicking. Was it simply a mirror image? I tried to pull out my phone and see if we could use it as a mirror. Was this a mirror image or the were the letters rotated in some weird way? I couldn't be bothered to figure it out by actually looking at it with any thought. I was too busy fumbling with my phone. I couldn't get it to unlock.
And then it beeped and went blank.
I started rambling about how there must be some IT guys on call, if only we knew how to call them. Meanwhile my senior was occupied with taking the pager apart. I looked over and he had removed the battery and was was using a pen to pry at the battery connectors. He got a new battery and miraculously, it started to correct itself, strangely, letter by letter.
But when we got a text page from someone, presumably important and related to a patient, that we could make no sense of, we started panicking. Was it simply a mirror image? I tried to pull out my phone and see if we could use it as a mirror. Was this a mirror image or the were the letters rotated in some weird way? I couldn't be bothered to figure it out by actually looking at it with any thought. I was too busy fumbling with my phone. I couldn't get it to unlock.
And then it beeped and went blank.
I started rambling about how there must be some IT guys on call, if only we knew how to call them. Meanwhile my senior was occupied with taking the pager apart. I looked over and he had removed the battery and was was using a pen to pry at the battery connectors. He got a new battery and miraculously, it started to correct itself, strangely, letter by letter.
The next night it happened again. I calmly went through the steps we had the night before and the problem was fixed.
The next morning we got a replacement pager.
And this is why in any moment of crisis in medicine, as lame as it sounds, we use a basic algorithm. Because otherwise we panic and do stupid things like press buttons randomly.
This also makes one wonder why, in one of the most technologically advanced medical systems, we still use pagers.
The next morning we got a replacement pager.
And this is why in any moment of crisis in medicine, as lame as it sounds, we use a basic algorithm. Because otherwise we panic and do stupid things like press buttons randomly.
This also makes one wonder why, in one of the most technologically advanced medical systems, we still use pagers.
