Doc Ahmad Hajiri

Emergency Room Surgical Trauma Rotator It was just another regular evening on a 24-hour duty at the Emergency Department (ED or ER, for most of us). I was one of the only two Trauma Interns on duty and was just taking a break from charting a very long list of patients--ranging from those who fell from stairs to those intoxicated madmen stabbing each other to death! It's a rare occasion for Trauma ER to have no patients in 3 hours time so I grabbed that opportunity to go out and buy a cold drink at the ER kiosk (it was already around 1:00 AM by the way).  On my way back to our station in the Acute Care Unit (ACU), I could see the triage area was already in a mess. ("Triage" by the way is the place where patients would go first before they are assigned with to different departments). There were piles of stretcher-beds (with patients on them, of course!) and hordes of their watchers waiting to be seen by our Triage officer (TO). Where was the TO, you asked? I wo...

March 13, 2017 Internal Medicine Rotator I was outside the hemodialysis (HD) room, watching some videos on Youtube while waiting for my patient’s HD to start. A few minutes after I seated myself on a vacant seat outside, a woman came near me. I recognized her the moment she approached, she’s my patient’s mother. I could see her eyes weary, tired and full of questions. It takes only a few seconds to recognize a soul in search of answers to her endless questions. And this one is a definite example. “Doc,” she started meekly, “Doc, tapatin niyo po ako.”(Doc please tell me) “Po? Ano po yun, maam?” I asked, my earphones already removed for me to focus on her every word. “Doc, ano na po ba talaga ang kalagayan ng anak ko? Di na po ba siya gagaling? Mamamatay na po ba siya?” (Doc, what is the real condition of my child? Will he still get well? Will he die?) her voice shaking with fear, full of anxiety over what she might find out. I asked her to ...

Assalamu Alaykum! (Peace be with you!) It's my last week as a Senior Intern in Internal Medicine and this week, we had the chance (and honor) to accompany our Service Senior Resident, Dr. David Francisco on his ECG rounds. We went to the Central ECG Room where all the ECG requests and results are done, took the remaining unread ECG's and read them. Awesome, right!  Dr. Fransisco teaching us how to read and interpret ECGs while us Senior interns are fooling around :p I always had a hard time understanding ECG's before. Of course, before medschool, those lines were nothing but alien scriptures to me like everyone else! haha. But after studying Basic Clinical Cardiology (one of my "first loves") in LU4 and getting exposed to the wonders of electrophysiology of the heart, understanding the peaks and troughs, the elevations and the depressions of those lines, was simply amazing! I still can't believe a few weird lines could already tell a clinician w...

Assalamu alaykum! This week marks our first week in the community as part of our 6-week rotation in FCh260. 2 Community Medicine. We will be assigned in Mendez and Bailen, Cavite. We will be leaving for Cavite this Tuesday, in sha Allah. But before that, we had to finish some series of orientations, trainings and lectures on community organizing. This is pretty exciting as you may all know that I am an avid lover of Community medicine. It's like my passion! haha. I am among the 10% of medical students who wouldn't hesitate to raise their hands when asked to practice as Doctors to the far-flung communities. The smell of the unknown adventure that lies ahead certainly excites my soul! Yohohoho! Anyway. We were asked to submit a "Pre-Departure" Reflection paper with the following guide questions. I have a far longer response to all of them, but I had to cut the, short as we were limited to one page only haha. I am sharing this to everyone :)  See you around...

Internship Day 1 to 14 Weeks 1 to 2 From July 1 to 14, 2016 The sign at the back of SOJR: The setting for this awesome two-week rotation! (Grabbed from Mike Mondragon :) will replace this once I get a better photo) General Info: Duration of Rotation: 2 weeks Number of students: 10-13 (depends on number per block) Important hours: Time in: 7:00 AM Time out: 5:00 PM Wearing coats REQUIRED on OPD! Allowed to be removed when on ER/Ward Duty. Duties: Two posts: One Ward Intern-on-Duty (WIOD) and one ER Intern on Duty (EIOD) from 7AM to 7AM the next day. How often? Depends. We were 10 in our block, and there were only 2 interns on duty per day, so we have 5 pairs rotating “duties” every 5 days. So chill! True Posts? Nope. But post-duties can go home early (12noon) if allowed by consultants/residents. SIC work: Only WIODs do the SICs of 12-20 patients in th...