I started as a medical student in 1975, knowing little about the health hazards I would face in the profession. Unfortunately ignorance is no protection from acquiring infections in the hospital. A few years passed by, and my minor skin cuts and scratches that used to heal in a couple of days started getting infected on a regular basis, and would require antiseptic dressings. Then I realized my skin had probably got colonized by hospital strains of pathogens, which were causing this problem. Then came the respiratory infections. Like anybody else, I would get upper respiratory infection in the form of a cold or cough once a year. That used to get well without any antibiotic in less than a week, probably because that would be viral. A few years later, the mucus coming from the nose or throat started developing a yellow or greenish color after 3 to 4 days of the viral infection, and would not go away until I took an antibiotic. I realized that it was secondary bacterial infection, caused by inhalation of hospital pathogens in the dust and air currents.
There is a transit ICU of sorts, which takes critically ill patients presenting in the emergency. It is a small temporary place, to be used while the regular ICU is being repaired and renovated. There is a strong offensive smell in it and in the corridor outside it. I thought it was probably caused by the dirt the patients and their relatives brought in, they being from the extremely poor communities. Now I realize the smell goes with a lot of hospital pathogens that are resistant to a lot of antibiotics. This wisdom came after a viral sore throat I caught from some careless citizen coughing without covering his mouth and nose, progressed after 4 days to a serious lower respiratory tract infection. This progression occurred two days after I visited the transit ICU to see a patient, and inhaled a generous dose of that foul air. It took two courses of heavy antibiotics, some cough mixtures, and a bronchodilator course to get rid of the infection. I had got the sputum tested for pathogens, and to my great horror, it grew Pseudomonas, a notorious deadly pathogen coming from hospitals.
Now I know first hand how patients feel when they acquire hospital infections.
Now I feel perhaps I should not have pursued my first passion - medicine - and should have become an engineer. I would not have been exposed to these deadly microbes as a professional hazard then.
Now I am afraid of visiting that transit ICU and similar smelling areas, and breathing in air that reeks of Pseudomonas. My Microbiology colleagues might tell me that smell is caused by other pathogens, and Pseudomonas has a fruity smell. Whatever it may be. I have written this so that young people who want to be doctors will know this aspect of the profession too, before they make a decision.
There is a transit ICU of sorts, which takes critically ill patients presenting in the emergency. It is a small temporary place, to be used while the regular ICU is being repaired and renovated. There is a strong offensive smell in it and in the corridor outside it. I thought it was probably caused by the dirt the patients and their relatives brought in, they being from the extremely poor communities. Now I realize the smell goes with a lot of hospital pathogens that are resistant to a lot of antibiotics. This wisdom came after a viral sore throat I caught from some careless citizen coughing without covering his mouth and nose, progressed after 4 days to a serious lower respiratory tract infection. This progression occurred two days after I visited the transit ICU to see a patient, and inhaled a generous dose of that foul air. It took two courses of heavy antibiotics, some cough mixtures, and a bronchodilator course to get rid of the infection. I had got the sputum tested for pathogens, and to my great horror, it grew Pseudomonas, a notorious deadly pathogen coming from hospitals.
Now I know first hand how patients feel when they acquire hospital infections.
Now I feel perhaps I should not have pursued my first passion - medicine - and should have become an engineer. I would not have been exposed to these deadly microbes as a professional hazard then.
Now I am afraid of visiting that transit ICU and similar smelling areas, and breathing in air that reeks of Pseudomonas. My Microbiology colleagues might tell me that smell is caused by other pathogens, and Pseudomonas has a fruity smell. Whatever it may be. I have written this so that young people who want to be doctors will know this aspect of the profession too, before they make a decision.
