Pizza and flesh wounds.

Once the school year is in full swing, lunchtime presentations abound, and typically there is food involved. Oftentimes it's the healthiest of choices: pizza. But the more "prestigious" seminars have things like subs, wraps, or Panera Bread sandwiches. Today the Emergency Department was showing off the effects of trauma, so keeping with the bloody color theme, they served up a boatload of pizzas. And pop, naturally. Ironically enough, that's what we're trained to tell patients to avoid to maintain weight control--drop the pop down to one can per day, and limit the fat intake. But anyways, we're all slim future doctors, we could use some extra fuel, right? And they bash the smokers.

So the presentation showed photos that I obviously can't share, but mixed among the various types of trauma, we had motorcycle driver who crashed into a concrete post and was split in half. Next up was the classic, but still much-beloved self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face. Biggest problem there was finding the airway, since the face was unmistakably gone. Yes, this does bring up the main thrust of the presentation, which was the ABCDE prioritization scheme for trauma patients. Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Disability, Exposure. Anyways, next up were the frequent but oft-misunderstood stab wounds. Mostly to the head, but rarely knives. X-rays generously illustrated the extent of the object penetration in case the photographs didn't make it clear. The grand finale was of course missing limbs and digits, with some tips on what to do with the amputated parts to preserve them for the surgeons. All the while, about a 100 people were munching down on pepperoni pizza.

Later on in the day, we were learning the eye exam, part of which was the technique to flip the upper eyelid. Someone was very queasy with that exercise. I guess they didn't attend the lunchtime seminar either...