Article Text

Download PDFPDF

Letter
Working in a national emergency
  1. Holly Morris
  1. Correspondence to Dr Holly Morris, Resident Medical Officer, Grey Base Hospital, Greymouth 7085, West Coast, New Zealand; hollyvmorris{at}doctors.org.uk

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

After a 2-week reprise in the UK for a wedding, I am travelling back to the ‘Shakey Isles’. Two weeks of sleep, uninterrupted by aftershocks in a house with continual power, water and sewage facilities have allowed me to reflect on the past 3 months living in a state of National Emergency.

At 12:51 on 22 February 2011, a 6.3-magnitude earthquake shook Christchurch, sending masonry and buildings falling, rocks avalanching and clouds of dust pluming into the air. It was described as New Zealand's darkest day.1

It was only a matter of minutes before casualties arrived. Working at a smaller hospital in Christchurch specialising in rehabilitation, we were not equipped with the luxuries of an emergency department (ED). Instead, a physiotherapy gymnasium turned into a triage centre and a series of tables became a basic pharmacy and supply of equipment for procedures such as lines and catheters.

I assessed and managed a variety of patients ranging from simple lacerations and head injuries to fractured neck of femurs and one patient with multiple spinal fractures, a lacerated spleen and a ruptured diaphragm. I learnt that a bit of ‘Blue Peter’ style improvisation can turn a cardboard box into an adequate splint and, combined with a bit of faith, a grey cannula can become a reasonable femoral line for volume resuscitation.

It was during the earthquake that I realised how much I had learnt during my F2 year spent working in a busy ED in the East Midlands, not only in caring for patients in the department but also in coordinating and working in a team. It is a shame that many junior doctors will no longer have the same opportunity to work in EDs due to the structure of specialty training. However, for those who do undertake a rotation in ED, I cannot stress enough the importance in using that time to learn skills in assessing and managing trauma patients in a pressured environment, and for those who work in ED for you to pass your valuable skills on to your juniors.

Reference

Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.