Recalling, GH Colombo in1965

 

Guantenamera song

https://youtu.be/Sqm6sAiAd0o?list=PLpBw3PwViVCm1ihwrFs2qEhVfPpth1KWV

"Peenas amaruwa".

          It was during my internship days at the General Hospital Colombo that I heard about the following incident. Some of the interns were very annoyed with admitting officers at the Out Patient's Department for taking the easy way out and admitting patients to the wards or referring them to the respective clinics without taking a history or examining patients. This resulted occasionally in hilarious incidents.

          A patient had come to the out patient's department in the early hours of the morning. The medical officer, daughter of an academic, who was on duty, had asked him what was wrong. The patient had replied "Peenas amaaruwa". Before you could say 'Jack Robbins', the MO had referred the patient to the VD (Venereal Diseases) Clinic, in room X at the OPD, to report at 8 am the same day.

          The patient totally unaware of the implications had duly reported to the clinic at the appointed hour. Only there had it been discovered that the MO/OPD had misinterpreted "PEENAS" for "PENIS", and hence the referral.

          We the much harried interns never forgot to relate this story at our regular monthly parties in our quarters. .

"Stool falling on foot".

          This incident also occurred while I was at the GH Colombo, in 1965. While we were on duty at the emergency ward we had to order quite a few Xrays. There were specially printed x-ray forms where we had to write a short history as to why we requested the Xray in addition to the area requested for Xray and the views needed.

          A patient had come with an injury to the foot. A fracture was suspected in the foot. A request form was completed. The history of the accident was written as "stool fell on the foot", and the patient was dispatched to the X-ray room. Not long afterwards an MO from the X-ray rang up to talk to the house officer. On the house officer reaching the phone he was asked how a stool could fall on the foot in a normal person and how a stool even if the patient was constipated could be heavy enough to cause a fracture of a metacarpal bone. The intern house officer had to explain that he was referring to a piece of furniture and not to the output from the bowel.

 

Dr. Niles, Consultannt Surgeon.

Dr.Niles was a Surgeon who used to talk with flamboyance. He was talking about the progress of an aneurysm of the ascending aorta. He narrated:-

“The aneurysm of the ascending aorta starts getting bigger. It presses on all the surrounding structures. It causes pressure necrosis and erodes through them. Thus it erodes through the body of the sternum. It will erode through the skin in front of this area. It will also erode through the “Hentley Gold Label” shirt that the patient is wearing. Then when the aneurysm bursts, the patient will collapse and die. “Hentley Gold label” was the acme of middle class ready-made shirts in Ceylon, in the early 1960’s.

            Once when doing a ward round he addressed a patient and asked what was wrong with him. The patient answered “Moothra wala seeni thiyanawa”- (There is sugar in my urine). He gave the necessary instructions to the house officer on treeatment and went to the next patient. He repeated the question to him. The answer was “Moothra wala piti thiyanawa”.-(There is flour in my urine i.e. his urine was turbid). Like a flash Niles told both patients –“Umbala denna ekathuwela, bakeriak dapalla” -  (Both of you get together and open a bakery). The understanding being that both can produce the flour and sugar needed as raw materials for the bakery.

            There was an obese female in the ward at the GH Colombo in Dr. Nile’s Surgical ward awaiting removal of her diseased gall bladder. Dr. Niles was averse to doing major surgery. He tried to persuade the patient against surgical intervention. The patient however refused to be persuaded away from surgical intervention because of frequent attacks of severe colicky pain. Dr. Niles relented and fixed her for surgery which he did the next day. He found the approach to the gall bladder extremely difficult because of the patient’s obesity. However he successfully finished the surgery.

            Next day during the ward rounds he had this to say to the patient.

“Bohoma amaaruwen ney mama ara piththaashaya aying keruwey. Inimaga thiyala ne bassey” – “It was with the greatest difficulty we removed the gall bladder. I had to go inside your abdomen using a ladder.”

Recalled Oldie

 

Never on a  Sunday

https://youtu.be/WSL6YNCU4bc?t=8