Trauma at Denver Health

St. Joe's is a private hospital that doesn't see any trauma surgical cases, a competency of this clerkship. Surgery students at St. Joe's and other hospitals that don't get a lot of trauma are required to take overnight call once during the clerkship at Denver Health, a Level 1 trauma center.

I did my trauma overnight call at Denver Health last night. The Friday night before Halloween with mild weather. I was expecting (and was actually hoping for) a very busy night, but we ended up seeing just one trauma case, a stab victim.

I wished that I could have been one of the trauma surgeons: blood squirting on my gown, my arms elbow-deep guts, running the bowel to rule out perforation. The surgery was fascinating to watch, even banished as I was behind the curtain at the head of the bed in the anesthesiologist's corner, not scrubbed in.

I want to see more trauma.