Island Med Student

It’s 7:40 a.m. I just got home from my 12-hour emergency medicine night shift. I learned a lot and did a lot. Will share soon.

I am normally good at not taking my work home with me. In medicine, you see so much sadness and horrific things. To stay sane, you must separate yourself from your visceral reactions.

For privacy sake, I can not elaborate on my last patient of the evening. But it affected me. It brought tears to my eyes. It made me mad. It made me want to scream and cry and throw my arms in the air. A young woman who was mugged and brutally beaten on her way to work in the early morning. How could a human being do this to another human being? An innocent soul. Her life changed forever. How? I simply can’t fathom it. And I can’t get over it. Her bloody face echoes in my mind. Lingering. How I just wanted to hold her hand and tell her everything would be okay. But everything won’t be okay for her. And neither will it be for me.