#jack bennet

[luhuhzy]

they're happy and they're in love and they're in nyc on a week-long date -minimum.

Just so you know.. @darke15 ... im not over ~those~ posts, if anyone even thinks of dying imma track you down and flood your house with my tears.

[auntymurda]

coddies’ fish flip flops. designed by jack bennet.

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JDM Birthday Project II

Dillinger And Capone (1995) >> Jack Bennett

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The Right to Die

@jackbennet

The topic I'm going to talk about here is somewhat controversial. It's been debated to and fro for years, but today could see great progress for it's supporters.

Tony Nicklinson, as you may have heard, is a sufferer of locked-in syndrome (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19249680) ever since a stroke that he had in Athens in 2005. He's now paralysed from the neck down, and cannot care for himself. He argues that he should have the right to die, the choice of when to end his life, and not be told that those who should assist him would face criminal charges.

We've had debates about this at university and college, and I have to say that the overwhelming number of people seem to support the idea of the individual choosing when they wish to end their life. Of course, suicide is not illegal, but assisted suicide is - anyone who helps a person to end their life can be convicted of murder.

Mr Nicklinson's case is different to most. He is completely paralysed, and thus someone cannot hand him a lethal cocktail of drugs for him to then take himself - some has to physically admit the drug, thereby causing his death. Though he may agree to this procedure, laws still dictate that the person who admits the drug is murdering Mr Nicklinson.

His barrister said: "The current law of assisted suicide and euthanasia operate to prevent him from adopting the only means by which he could practically end his life, namely with medical assistance."

To me, it seems ridiculous. Why should someone be made to suffer if they truly do not wish to live, and are in what they consider to be an irreparable condition? Now it may seem strange that I, a medical student, am agreeing with assisted suicide - let's call in euthanasia - but I can't see why anyone would argue otherwise. Before delving into my argument, we should probably define active and passive euthanasia.

In some cases in this country, passive euthanasia has been permitted. This amounts to, for example, stopping treatment, or removing artificial ventilation. Nothing is being done by the assistant which physically causes the patient to die. This is different from active euthanasia, where the assistant performs an act, e.g. giving some lethal drugs, which kills the patient.

Doctors agree to 'first, do no harm' - we don't aim to hurt a patient or make them worse. I would argue that someone who is immeasurable pain, misery or discomfort, would be caused harm by forcing them to live. I should also point out that all my arguments are based on the fact that the patient wants to die.

Obviously, you wouldn't just shove the needle in at the first sign of a patient giving up. Some patients want to end it all and then a few months down the line get a second wind and pull through, and then can't believe that they were, at one point, suicidal. There would clearly be safeguards that would be put in place to protect against this.

Transsexuals, to take an example, have to live as a member of the opposite sex for two years before they are allowed to have the operation. Something like this would have to be in place - a period of time for the patient to ensure that they truly want to die, and give them the chance to change their minds, several times if need be.

I can't think that anyone would wish for someone to live in immeasurable pain and discomfort. I heard a great example which I'd like to share; it's quite an extreme example, but it does demonstrate a point:

Imagine there's a baby, in a glass box, in front of you. You can't get to it to lift it out, or remove it. In front of you as well, is a button which - if pressed - will kill the baby, in a painless, humane way. If the baby was sitting there, quietly, looking quite jolly, would you press the button? I damn well hope not.

But now imagine that the baby in front of you is screaming in pain. It's crying it's eyes out, going red, and writhing around. It's in constant, excruciating pain, which isn't going to stop. What would you do this time?

I think I'd press the button. To me, if there's nothing else that can be done, more harm is being done by forcing the person, whether they be child or adult, to suffer. I can't think of a way of justifying, in that situation,  not pressing the button. There's no benefit that comes from it, only harm.

I know it's a very controversial topic, but as doctors, we have to act in the patient's best interest, and in some cases, this means helping them to stop their suffering. If they truly want to die, because they're in a horrible condition, we should abide by their wishes. Not force them to live in pain.

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Apologies for my Absence - Plus 'Illness and Exams'

I’d like to start this post with apology - I haven’t been blogging nearly as much as I would have liked recently. I had all these ideas in my head of what I wanted to write, and then exams did their usual thing and took a massive sledgehammer to my life.

But hey-ho, I’m back. Lucky old you. And here’s a post you should have had a long time ago:

“So I’m lying in bed with a cold that’d floor a rhinocerous. My head is pounding, my nose is blocked and it feels like I’m trying to swallow a bunch of razor blades.

Despite all this, I’m now on holiday. I’ve finished all my written exams and also my OSCE, a practical exam where I had to examine patients in front of examiners. The writtens were, as expected, absolutely atrocious. The questions were very difficult, not because the topics were hard to understand, but because we were given so much information that it was impossible to recall it all. This meant that a lot of questions were really hard. I’m fairly sure I’m going to have to re-do those come July.

OSCEs were a breath of fresh air. I’ve never had to do a practical exam at medical school before, and it was actually quite enjoyable. There were 10 ‘stations’ that we had to complete, and we were split up over three days and three hospitals. There were about 23 different exams that the med school could have picked from, and I think it would have made sense to change these throughout the three days to stop people on the first day giving a heads-up to the ones on the 2nd and 3rd. But, with my med school being the way it is (i.e. not really thinking things through), all 10 stations were the same throughout the 3 days.

This meant it was rather easy for the people on the last day, as they knew what was coming. But still, it was much better than being sat at a desk trying to cram medical facts into my head. This was actual medicine - patient interaction.

Each of the stations had a sign outside the door, which told you what you had to do inside. This was pretty helpful, considering you were only allowed six minutes once you were in to perform the exam. My first station was to take a history from a patient with chest pain. As the bell sounded I flung back the curtain, ready to get stuck in, but was stopped by the examiner, who decided she needed to make herself seen and heard.

She explained to me in great detail what I had to do, making sure she pointed out everything on the sheet. I gave her a look which said ‘Back off, love, I don’t have time for this,’ but apparently she was oblivious. As it turned out, I didn’t manage to take the full history, missing out the very last part.

Still slightly annoyed at the previous woman, I entered the next room after the bell, and found it to be venepuncture. This was a pretty straightforward task - explain the procedure to the actor, strap up the fake arm on the table and take some blood from it. After I’d done this, I sat back, rather pleased with myself.

The examiner looked at me. ‘Are you done?’ she asked. I looked a little lost. ‘I think so,’ I replied, not sure if she was hinting at something I’d forgotten to do. She nodded at the bottle of blood in front of me. ‘What would you do next?’ I assumed that she was now just asking questions which were a kind of follow-up to the procedure. ‘I’d probably send it off for tests,’ I said. Her gaze never faltered. ‘Go on then.’

I started slightly, wondering what she meant. My eyes scanned the table quickly and tried to discern what on earth she was talking about. How was I supposed to send off the bottle in an exam? Surely that made no sense.

Then it caught my eye - a set of blood forms. They were tucked behind the fake arm on the table, behind the bottles of fake blood that fed into the model. If you hadn’t been my height and leaning forward, you wouldn’t have seen them.

I whipped one out and took a look at it. I’d never filled one in before, and I had to learn to do so in thirty seconds, before the buzzer went. As it turned out, it was quite straightforward, but I was again annoyed at how the forms had been hidden away, and weren’t obvious. If it hadn’t been for the examiner I would’ve lost marks there for sure.

I was quite grateful for this. I’d heard stories of examiners tapping wash bottles when a student had forgotten to do so, just so they didn’t have to mark them down, and how they would ask very leading questions to help you out. I hadn’t really expected this old medical school fable to be true, but there you go - it was.

However, she hadn’t done this for everyone. Asking around afterwards, it turned out I was one of only two out of eleven that had found the forms.

It was an exam that I had been (sort of) looking forward to, because it was so different. It was testing something that you really had to be able to do as a doctor, rather than just testing your fact-recall ability. If I get through to next year we have another set of OSCEs, this time in specialities like paeds and obs & gynae. Should be interesting, to say the least.”

Twitter - @jackbennet

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-Bennet/185708991548415

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Another Quick Note...

Exams are looming, so like I say, it's difficult for me to blog anything substantial. But I have, however, set up a facebook page for small posts and rants. You can contact me through there too, if you find it easier.

Again, anything related to med school, interviews, experiences etc. will still be addressed. Hope all of those of you who've got exams looming are managing, you'll all do fine.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jack-Bennet/185708991548415

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Just a Quick Note...

Not so much a full-blown blog today, as such, as I have exams looming. But, does anyone have any questions about medical school interviews or the such-like? Please get in touch if you do!

Promise to be up and running soon. Looking into getting myself a Twitter and Facebook to continue my rants and ramblings, too. So stay tuned!