Today, due to the lack of surgeons, I managed to drain the pleural cavity to one patient. The patient has already been treated for two weeks in the treatment department for exudative pleurisy with no apparent effect. Moreover, the amount of exudate (fluid) in the pleural cavity was constantly increasing and by today (according to the results of roentgenography) reached the collarbone. Until now, the therapist consulted herself, puncturing and pumping out the liquid herself. Today it became obvious that there is nowhere to go further with draining. Your obedient servant collected all necessary for manipulation and took the patient to the dressing room. It is worth noting that the disposable sets for this manipulation are still only dreaming of us, and that's why we are draining in the old grandfather way. Trocar is a stylet with a nozzle on it, through which a drainage (tube) is introduced into the pleural cavity (the space between the lung and thorax) to evacuate the contents. The patient in such cases sits on a stool, I'm next to him. Anesthetizing the place of puncture with novocaine and performing a trial puncture, I proceeded to the operation proper. The procedure, I will say directly, is not for the faint-hearted: a stylet with a diameter of a ball-point pen is stuck to a patient in the intercostal space with a very characteristic crunch. Next, the stylet is removed from the nipple and at this moment it is very important to plug the opening of the nipple with a finger in time so that the air does not get into the pleural cavity and its contents onto the doctor. But either my finger slipped or the patient jerked excessively, but at that moment a jet of purulent hemorrhagic exudate of the color of meat slops sprang from the opening of the branch pipe with incredible pressure into my face and with a characteristic smell characteristic of tubercular patients. And not just spattered, but in a matter of seconds, I drenched the gauze mask that covered my face (we are disposable by tradition because of their absence), so I smelled the smell and even the taste of that liquid in its entirety. It does not even need to be Grenouille. Mask my sister certainly replaced, but there was no time to handle the mouth and nose - it was necessary to finish the procedure. Breathing with a frequency of once every half a minute, I still finished the drainage, installed the system on Bylau and went to wash. Guess from three times than I rinsed my mouth? Of course, they are the most - C2H5OH. The working day was nearing the end and there was no foreseen any trouble in connection with this. Suddenly, ten minutes before the end of the working day, my chief (hospital) calls me and informs me that all the officers are being assembled at headquarters to represent the new chief of the colony. It was necessary to do something urgently. Remembering the method known since the student days, I quickly extracted a couple of ampoules of vitamin B1 from the treatment room, and then I broke them down drank. Now I should have smelled of vitamins. For insurance on the way to the headquarters, I smoked a couple more cigarettes and was completely sure that the conspiracy was a success. The chief was represented by two colonels. And everything was already coming to an end ... In conclusion, the word was taken by the new "boss": "I will not detain anyone," he said and, looking straight at me, said - "But tomorrow I will individually talk with some." The show took place ...
