Medical Clinic: Ask Dr. Olivia

Thank you for hosting this forum. All the best for 2008.

Linda

Didn't know I'd bump into you on the blogs but it was a very pleasant surprise. So glad to see you on here and you can keep us updated. Check ya later. Deb

Hi Ola,

So pleased I've found this thread. I thought for a moment that it had gone.

My h's sister and sister's husband are in a car accident. The husband is killed instantly but the sister lives a couple of days after the accident. She's able to talk, and fearing she won't live, asks h to become her child's guardian if she doesn't survive.

I also need her to be able to sign any relevant documents.

What injuries would make this credible? And if the child was in the same accident and survived, is it credible he'd escape unscathed?

Thank you,

Best wishes

Janet

Welcome back to The Clinic!

OK, now to your questioin!

You wrote:

My h's sister and sister's husband are in a car accident. The husband
is killed instantly but the sister lives a couple of days after the
accident. She's able to talk, and fearing she won't live, asks h to
become her child's guardian if she doesn't survive.

I also need her to be able to sign any relevant documents.

What injuries would make this credible? And if the child was in the
same accident and survived, is it credible he'd escape unscathed?

Any injury that doesn't involve the head and spine can leave her conscious and able to move so that she could talk coherently and sign documents. So you can go with a massive blunt or penetrating abdominal injury. The problem with those is that the patient can be in and out of many surgeries to explore the injuries and try to fix them in stages, and then in a lot of cases complications set in one after the other, and we keep trying to fix one thing while the other gives, and the casualty ends up losing the battle. But in between surgeries, or even before the first intervetion it happens all the time that the casualty is lucid and able to talk and move.

So you can go with that.

As for the child, of course it can happen that he's unscathed. During my time in ER we'd get an auto accident casualties where a passenger is mangled and the other has a couple of bruises. It's amazing how things like that happen, but they do. 

 Hope helps!

Hi again, Ola,

I'd love some help with this:

Is the following credible?

My hero's late wife became pregnant and shortly afterwards developed cancer. (I'm not sure what type, any suggestions would be great )

She miscarried the baby early in the pregnancy (reason related to her illness.) and was advised not to become pregnant again.

She couldn't use a surrogate mother, because the drugs needed to stimulate her eggs for IVF could cause the cancer to re-occur.

Cancer recurred and she died. I'm not sure how long afterwards would be feasible. Three years maybe?

Thanks again, Ola,

Best wishes

Janet

you a cute picture but sending good wishes for a GREAT BIRTHDAY. Hope you can take some time out of your writing and enjoy your day. All the Best to you on your special day.

Glad I found the forum. 

I have a question. My h is knocked out in an explosion in another part of the building where she works. She lands face down in water from the automatic fire sprinklers. Being without oxygen for a while before being rescued results in some brain damage. What I'd like to know is, is it feasible that her brain damage could result in her being confused about time, and sequence, and anything to do with numbers? 

Thanks

Thanks so much for the birthday wishes. I do feel it's my birthday for real now.

And though it's much belated, my family are going to celebrate it next Friday, so I get to celebrate it after all.

Hope you had a Great Belated Birthday Celebration!

You brought up an interesting question. Is Twetty Bird a boy or a girl? 

I have a question. My h receives a deep gash to the top of her right forearm in an auto accident. She’s an artist and one medical personnel says she may never paint and draw again, another says with patience and therapy she will. Would an injury—damaged but not severed— to the extensor digitorum and the two lesser muscles next to it have this outcome?

Thanks,

Mega apologies for taking so long to answer. Life interfered in a big way (and dentists)
!!!

You asked:  

I've been all over the internet and can't find what I'm looking for. 
I'm working on something for Harlequin American and one of the
secondary characters is excpecting sextuplets.  Basically what I want
to know is how many weeks along would she be before this is discovered,
and when or if would she suspect she's carrying more than one child?

Also if you could point me in the direction for information
pretaining to this type of multiple pregnancy/birth would be
awesome. Nothing too techinical.  I'm a total layman.   I'd hate to
consume the thread and your time with tons of questions I'm sure to
have.  :)

 A multiple pregnancy can be detected by vaginal ultrasound as early as
6 weeks and by an abdominal ultrasound by 7 to 8 weeks (calculated from
the woman's last menstrual period). However, a multiple pregnancy is not
usually confirmed until about 10 to 12 weeks, when a clear outline of more than one
head is able to be detected and separate heart beats can definitely
be confirmed. It has been known for ultrasonographers to mistake small
sacs of fluid or blood in the uterus for twins during early
pregnancy.

As for a direction to look at here's a good site: http://ninemsn.birth.com.au/Info.asp?class=66&page=

Hope helps!

Thank you sooo much for the book - I've just finished reading The
Sheikh Surgeon's Proposal and Malek is simply divine! I had tears in my
eyes by the end *sigh* 

Oh, Christina! Thanks so much for letting me know. I'm so happy you enjoyed the book...and Malek. He'll always have a real special place in my heart, since he was my first Sheikh.

Hope all is well with you, too!

Thanks so much Olivia :)  I understand life interfering. Right now I'm trying to juggle a full time job, four kids and writing.  Not to mention a husband with knee injury so driving is out for now, and I have to run ALL errands on top of everything else. 

Hope your life settles down soon and again thanks!

Sandy

SandySue, four kids? I'm barely coping with one!!

Hope your Dh is back to top form soon! Glad I helped in any way!

ChrissieSue

Hope my answer does't mess with your current story too much. But glad my answer to SandySue will help you with your next story! Good luck with it! 

A middle aged secondary character has been very ill in hospital with pneumonia. Her husband has been sleeping at the hospital overnight.

She seems to be over the worst and her husband is back home, but making daily visits.

The next time he visits, something happens that means he needs to unexpectedly stay at the hospital overnight again.

I don't want what happens to be too serious, as I want the character to recover . But what can I have happen to her that means her husband is sufficiently worried to want to stay overnight ?

Maybe she could need an urgent operation related to her original ilness? I need something to happen while he's visiting her. But what?

Any suggestions would be great

Thanks you, Nancy.  That wil work nicely