Life is so full of surprises. Who would have thought a resident doctor would come up with such a novel way to control blood pressure of a patient?
I found the patient in the ward where we keep patients in early labor. She was lying down with her head on a sphygmomanometer. It was a little surprising, because it must have been quite uncomfortable for her. It was a mercury type instrument, housed inside in a long, flat metallic box. To balance a head on such a narrow thing must be difficult. It must have been painful too, since it was hard. Other problems with leaving it on the patient's bed were making it non available to other doctors, and breaking it by accidental fall.
"Who has left the sphygmomanometer on the patient's bed, under her head?" I asked. None of the resident doctors answered in the affirmative. I repeated the question and got no response once again. They must have thought that would beat me. They always believe the Bosses believes the patients are dumb and do not ask them any questions. I am different. So I asked.
"The doctor checked my blood pressure with it and forgot it here" the patient said as she got up.
"Which doctor?" I asked.
"This one" she said, pointing the doctor out. So I asked the doctor, "why did you leave it there and not own up when I asked?"
"But I had taken it back, because it belonged to another unit" she said.
"So you think the patient brought it back and kept it under her head and now is lying to me?" I asked. Actually telling me the truth - that she forgot - was so much easier and time saving. But perhaps face saving was more important to her than time saving.
"......" she said.
In the meantime I noticed that the patient had decided that we had finished talking to her and was back to her lying down position. She had carefully positioned her head over the hard, long, narrow, metallic box. Whether the frown on her face was due to the pain of labor contractions or the pain caused by the box was difficult to opine on. That suddenly gave me the idea.
"She seems to believe the instrument is for controlling the blood pressure. Have you given her the idea that putting her head on it controls her blood pressure?" I asked.
"......."
Since she would not answer, I have no way of knowing the truth. But the patient seemed quite upset when they took the sphygmomanometer away from her.
