ER: Behind the Curtain: The Survivalist's Guide to the ER

Newly revised! Prepare to be taken through the looking glass and into the secret world of emergency medicine. No punches are pulled, no happy endings ensured. Find out what it really takes (and takes out of) residents and medical students hoping to complete the training required to call themselves ER physicians. The shocking truths exposed behind the curtain will forever change how you view hospitals, residents, and the entire medical profession. Yes, the stories you are about to read REALLY happened, even the ones that seem outside the realm of possibility. Similar events occur daily in ER's across the country. They are just kept quiet, "Behind the Curtain." This first hand account pulls back that shade and reveals ER medicine and residency training in the United States for all to see. This is your survivalist's guide to the Emergency Department. The stories you will read illustrate a number of potential and real downfalls in medical training and even modern ER medicine. By reading through the trials, setbacks, and unexpected traps experienced by me and my colleagues, it is my hope the same errors will be avoided by future residents and the millions of patients that visit ERs every year. As a patient, knowing where and how mistakes are made and knowing even a few of the key "tricks" doctors use to get their own medical care can make the difference between life and death. In essence, this is a chronicle of my journey into another world, a world most people have no idea exits, a world that I hardly grasped as I prepared to enter...