Panic! In the ER

The avian flu incident:

First I need to explain the way our ER "functions." After triage, the patients wander/are wheeled over to the nurses' desk, wait for an overworked nurse to notice them standing there, inform the nurse that they are indeed patients and would like to, I don't know, lie down and be treated. The nurse then takes a glance around the ER trying to find an empty bed, gets interrupted by a dozen or so other wandering patients, disgruntled physicians, couriers on bicycles (they drive around the hospital on three-wheeled bikes), and then eventually remembers the patient and directs him or her to a bed.

So I was not surprised, as I awkwardly hovered around the desk waiting to be asked to stick needles in people, when a young man sauntered up to me, tapped me on the shoulder, and asked where he was supposed to go. A nurse intercepted when it became clear that he was a patient, and began to try to find him a bed. She casually asked him what his complaint was.

"I work with chickens and I think I have avian flu."

And then. . . chaos and despair! Three nurses converge trying to get a mask on the guy, trying to figure out if he needs to be isolated, where he should be isolated, how much isolation is necessary, whether the whole ER should be quarantined, whether we all needed to put on HAZMAT suits. The doctor I was following began frantically flipping through the avian flu protocol binder (the avian flu protocol is about 50 pages long). Then ::whoof:: all the doctors and nurses effectively disappeared for about 45 minutes leaving one resident and I alone to basically run the ER.

I actually never found out what happened in the end, I'll have to check on Sunday. I overheard the chief attending telling someone he was sure this wasn't avian flu and thought all the precautions were silliness- but who knows?

I of course, like any good medical student, have been obsessively monitoring myself for signs/symptoms of fever since I got home last night.

So far so good.