Wednesday, October 11, 2006

In the refrigerator

So I open the refrigerator, look inside, and I take the ... uhmm.... yeah... an amputated human leg. I handle it to the pathologist and we start dissecting the infected part of the hip which was removed from the unfortunate patient. The surgery was done last Friday and the leg stayed in the fridge for 4 days and only today did we take it out to look at it. The smell was not good.


studyhing it a lab technician comes in carrying a large tray of tissues from other patients: colons, prostates, lungs, you name it. We'd dissect them and place them on slides, stain them and look at them next day under the microscope.


This is pathology, which is what I'm doing this month. Organs taken from patients in the hopsital are sent to the pathologist to be studied and that is the way cancers, inflammatory diseaes and plenty of other disease are diagnosed.


The worst part about it is what I had in medical school: Forensic Medicine (tebb shar3i). When someone dies mysteriously or in an accident the body is sent to the forensic medicine lab to search of what could have caused the accident. For example someone who died in a car accident might have died of a heart attack first then then had the accident, and it might be important to determine what caused the death for legal and insurance issues. Some people who appear to have committed suicide might have suffocated to death by someone else but they were placed in a situation (like on a hanger) to suggest that they killed themselves.


Sounds interesting? Ok, wait until you open the stomach of a young person who died 2 hours ago after falling down from a building to find the eggs and tomatoes he had for breakfast this morning. Wait until you observe the brother who is slowly recognizing the black body of his sister who was completely healthy but died that morning after caughting fire in the kitchen. It's not cool.


I left the hospital and on the way back I bought some grilled chicken, and when I got home I placed it on a tray, then opened the refrigeragtor and took out.... uhm... yeah... a diet Pepsi. I remembered doing something similar earlier today, but in a different place and definitely for a totally different purpose!


I started eating my meal and hoping that nobody would be opening up my stomach in 6 hours to take out the grilled chicken!

7 comments:

ساري said...

I'm just hoping you don't open the refrigerator tomorrow morning, grab something and start chewing on it just to discover you've opened the wrong refrigerator (nice one abu el soos:) )

By the way, after reading the introduction of this post, I learnt never to expect a normal story when it's being told by a doctor.

Another thing, I know that in real forensic medicine you're dealing with murder cases and things like that. My amazing question is, were you ever threatened by someone (i.e. serial killer, revenging wife) to forge the result of the anatomy so as to cover up for a murder (and I'm expecting an honest answer on an internationally-accessed blog)?

Hey, your nick should be "The refrigerator guy".. with a nick like that, maybe they'll make a horror movie about you in the future filled with slain people and zombie heads. Or a comedy movie filled with grilled chicken and Diet Pepsis.

Good luck Refrigerator-guy,
Yours,
Sary,
the "post-sized comments guy"

Mala2e6 said...

I have good news and bad news,the doctor said to the patient
give me the bad news first,the patient said

Doctor: we amputated the wrong leg
patient: so whats the good news?
Doctor: your bad leg is getting better



another ending
patient : what the bad news?
Doctor: we have to amputate ur legs
patient: so whats the good news?
Doctor: the patient next to u is willing to buy ur shoes

just to lighten up the atmosphere ;)

ya zalameh 3ala hal sobo7 ijrain e ma3laee2..

la7ameen wella dakatra?

bass

ya3teek il 3afeyeh hareega ,you'll make an excellant doctor

Me said...

i am glad that you still have an appetite to eat after spending the day at the pathology lab!! If i were you, i would have stopped eating all along and disappeared in think air..OR i would have gone to drama school!! Good post!

Hareega said...

Sary...
Nokteh gawiyyeh ;)
i'm not speicalizing in forensic medicine or pathology it's just these 2 weeks thank god!
I think the suspicious part of it is awesome but the medical part is not at all!!


mala2e6 o y3afeeki, i'm doing this for only 2 weeks (about the jokes i might use them one day lol)

summer to be honest one of the very few places we would eat dutring ramadan without anyone seeing us was the morgue -just outside of it- !

lubna said...

grrrr.. that's one good reason why I wouldn't want to become a doctor!
these are so ugly feelings, I can't bare to live with.

sorry... i don't know how to cheer you up, i can't get to cheer myself :S

Wish you a different happy good new day:)

Anonymous said...

LOL on Mala2e6's jokes :) .. I am glad I did not read this post before iftar , I'd probably sat there staring at food with an ugly thought in my mind ! eah !
I suppose you get used to it after seeing all those chopped human parts and organs, do you still get affected by the blood's smell and the looks of deformed bodies ?

Its weird how the consistency of something makes it loose its value .. or at least its effect ..

Interesting post Hareega !

Hareega said...

tealover... no it's just uncomfortable at the moment itslef, sometimes very very uncomfortable but once it's over then it's over.

lubna .. thank you, good day for u too!