And two days later I came to do my next emergency shift, and that's when my chief asked to speak to me quietly in her office.
两天后,又轮到我在急诊室值班。那时我的主任要我去她的办公室里私下谈谈。
And she said the three words: Do you remember?
她说了那三个字: 记得吗?
"Do you remember that patient you saw with the sore throat?"
“记得吗?那位你看过的喉咙酸痛的患者?”
Well it turns out, he didn't have a strep throat.
原来,他并没有得链球菌性咽喉炎。
He had a potentially life-threatening condition called epiglottitis.
得的是一种有可能威胁到生命的病症, 叫会厌炎。
You can Google it, but it's an infection, not of the throat, but of the upper airway, and it can actually cause the airway to close.
各位可以在谷歌上查询,但它不是喉咙,而是上呼吸道的感染,并有可能造成呼吸道阻塞。
And fortunately he didn't die.
幸好,他并没有过世。
He was placed on intravenous antibiotics and he recovered after a few days.
在被安排做抗生素静脉注射的几天之后,他便痊愈了。
And I went through the same period of shame and recriminations and felt cleansed and went back to work, until it happened again and again and again.
而我又回到了那个愧疚和自责的时光中, 然后等情绪平复后,又回到了工作岗位, 直到这些错误再度重复的发生。
Twice in one emergency shift, I missed appendicitis.
在同一个急诊的值班中,我两次没有发现病患得了盲肠炎。
Now that takes some doing, especially when you work in a hospital that at the time saw but 14 people a night.
这是很难想象会发生的事情,尤其是当你在一间一个晚上,只见十四名病患的医院工作。
Now in both cases, I didn't send them home and I don't think there was any gap in their care.
虽然对这两个病例,我都没有让他们回家,而我也不觉得在治疗照顾过程中有任何空隙和差错。
One I thought had a kidney stone.
其中一位我诊断他有肾结石。
I ordered a kidney X-ray.
并安排了肾脏X光,但结果正常。
When it turned out to be normal, my colleague who was doing a reassessment of the patient noticed some tenderness in the right lower quadrant and called the surgeons.
我的同事当时正在对病人的病情做重新的诊断。在他留意到病人右下腹的地方有些柔软时,便联系了外科医生。
The other one had a lot of diarrhea.
另一位病患有严重的腹泻。
I ordered some fluids to rehydrate him and asked my colleague to reassess him.
我给了他一些液体帮助他补充水分,并让我的同事重新看了看。
And he did and when he noticed some tenderness in the right lower quadrant, called the surgeons.
他照做了。 当他注意到病人右下腹有些柔软时,也联系了外科医生。
In both cases, they had their operations and they did okay.
这两名病患 都做了手术并康复了。