Date of Medical Observation
July 2006

Narration

            A 17-y/o male was rushed to ER-trauma complex due to a gunshot wound. He was allegedly shot by a known assailant after a heated argument. Point of entry was on 5th intercostal space, left posterior axillary line and the point of exit was on the xiphoid area.

On  primary survey, the patient was unresponsive, not breathing,  with no pulse, and the pupils were dilated. He was literally dead upon arrival.

We started the resuscitation. Airway by endotracheal intubation was secured by my senior and was hooked to ambubagging. I did the cutdown for  venous access. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was started and doses of epinephrine were given.

The patients' relatives and friends were all there. They were all crying, some were violently shouting. Their mourning was heard all over the entire ER complex, just   like a scene in a telenovela.

            After 30 minutes  of resuscitation, we finally pronounced the patient’s time of death.

            One of the relatives shouted asking me to continue the resuscitation. The other one grabbed the ambubag and did it by himself while another one did the chest compression. They all got mad, and became hysterical.

I called the security personnel but they were of no help. They were outnumbered. So we all just stared and watched, nobody could intervene.

Narration

It was only when police authorities arrived and finally managed to control the situation. It took almost an hour before we could be able to transfer the body to the morgue.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->n<!--[endif]-->Insight, Discovery, Stimulus

<!--[if !supportLists]-->n<!--[endif]-->Physical, Emotional, Psycho-social

            Most of the talking and listening that we do here in the hospital is always about our patients. We talk about our patient symptoms. How are we going to diagnose him. How are we going to treat him.

Now lets talk about our patients “bantay”.

            Our patient’s recovery does not depend solely on us doctors, the ‘bantays’ play a crucial role.

            Most of the time, we communicate with them as much as we do with our patients. Sometimes we just rely on them on every information we need about our patients.

            Some are cooperative, others are apprehensive. Some are over protective others are violent.

            In this particular case, I saw how emotional a bantay can be.

END