Medical Misadventures

A stripper bitten by a venomous snake, a boy in suspended animation after collapsing in the snow, a woman who survived being run over by a train. These are some of the intriguing and baffling cases I have encountered in my medical career. I have never ceased to be amazed at the bewildering assortment of medical mysteries that have been thrown at me. Some were head scratchers, some were tragic, some amusing. Some defy explanation altogether. They have shown me that people are strange, conflicted, frail and remarkable creatures. They have also shown me how some patients, even when brought to their knees by their ailments, can courageously struggle back onto their feet.These experiences have taught me humility and caution. Faced with events I couldn't control and outcomes that defied all predictions, it often seemed that medicine was a series of traps designed to trip me up or, perhaps, a capricious gremlin whispering confusing advice in my ear and plotting to humiliate me.This collection of stories highlights the murky confusion that doctors face when confronted by the unexpected. They remind us that certainty in medicine is not assured and assumptions can be misleading. The practice of medicine, for better or worse, is a curious mix of science, art and divination and the results are never entirely predictable.