First Suturing

On ED rotation now...finally got to do suturing on a real person!!! As usual, I felt bad for the patient, but thanks for the sacrifice...god will bless you :P

6 weeks away from being an intern, I will have to admit that it is a bit late...ah well...Really grateful to the registrar, who waited for me to come out from another patient's cubicle and offered to let me do the suturing. Before we went in, he got a suture set and a tissue box for me to briefly practice the knots.

I was thinking if I should get consent from the patient...and my answer was hell no (dont lecture me on ethics...)...unless the patient really screamed refusing me doing it...

It was a 23 year old guy who accidentally lacerated his middle finger while fixing his mountain bike. There was a flap of flesh over the PIP joint, bleeding profusely. The registrar supervised me doing a ring block and then suturing.

I decided that it wasn't a good idea to tell the patient that "Hey, you are the first patient that I suture...but don't you worry coz I have good skills in sewing!" So I just did whatever I needed to. 3 stitches done, bleeding stopped. Amazing!!!

The patient took a photo of his wound and the stitches with his iPhone. I bet you it is on FB somewhere...haha!