Why I No Longer Work As A Medical Professional

By Bill Craig
If you've read the blog since I began writing, you'll know that for 17 years I worked in the ER of a local hospital as a respiratory therapist and why I voluntarily left the profession. On several emergent occasions, I'd blank out on important things necessary to save a patient's life. For instance placing the patient on airway life support and forgetting to plug in the ventilator (some of you call it "respirator"), drawing arterial blood, looking at the lab values and blanking out on how to adjust the ventilator in order to improve a patient's breathing. Something I'd done for 17 years in less than a minute.

As these things became more frequent, and knowing about dementias (both my parents had Alzheimer's and I carry the gene for one of its causes) I decided to see a neurologist, and after several MRI's, lab work, MMPI and other testing, it was decided I had Alzheimer's Related Dementia. I decided to quit my job before I killed someone.

If you're new to the blog this capsulized history will help you understand what's going on with me.
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Today I was digging around in some old textbooks and found a copy of an old multiple-choice practice test I had not taken, so just for hell of it. Out of 25 questions, I scored 80%! Isn't that great????

No, it's not. Why?

Because this was a written test and I could take my time thinking about the answers. You can't do that in the ER.
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The Animal Rescue Site

Thanks,

Bill

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