Another Half an Hour
HOUSE JOB DIARIES: The story of a baby that suffered at the hands of the system, because she was unable to afford expensive hospitals (A True Story, but fictional names) She had been lying on the bed of Paediatric ICU for hours, gasping, each breath coming in rales. Her mother, looking on at her wide eyes and flared nostrils, feeling as helpless as a snared rabbit, had already exhausted her lacrimal glands. The ICU was too filled with patients for the pair of House Officers to spare her more than a glance. One house officer once came by. He looked at the file. She was admitted last night. Her breathing was noted to become gradually difficult. She had also had fever and coughing. It was a pneumonia case. He had seen too many succumb to this ailment. This would likely be another one of the many. ' Well, who's counting, anyway ' he thought heaving a sigh. He checked the oxygen, and the...