K2: Acute Male Unit

Today David and I were assigned to Dr. MW, mother of Dr. EW, except that she doesn't do anything on Tuesday but look at charts. So...David and I read chart after chart and familiarized ourselves with the patients on K2 (an all-male unit). Some of the cases were very sad. One guy became "damaged" after a failed attempted to hang himself; cerebral anoxia permanently damaged his brain and Dr. MW wondered if he would have been better off if no one had resuscitated him. Another patient (whom Kyle saw the night we were working with Dr. P) is a self-proclaimed lawyer who wrote a letter to Dr. MW stating his rights as a patient at TSH and saying that she's violating his rights by keeping him away from the phone (b/c last year he called the police asking them to arrest her). Actually, several of patients that David admitted made it to K2, so we'll get to see them tomorrow. One patient who is mildly MR (mentally retarded) even got a letter from his mother saying that b/c of his violent tendencies (he tried to strangle her) he is no longer welcome to live with her and will have to find some other place to live if/when he leaves TSH. Very, very sad.

We had lecture at JPS as usual. Marcus was gone, so we assumed he was post-call, but Katie, Mike E's fiancee, said Marcus was "looking at his baby." In other words...Marcus and his wife are at their first sono appt b/c they're expecting!! First Jedd, now Marcus. I can easily see Marcus catching his own baby when its born; just cutting the cord wouldn't be enough for him. Then it'll be eighteen deliveries for him unless he does another OB rotation before the baby is born.