No 13424, Friday 10 Dec 2021, Dreamer

RULES FOR POSTING COMMENTS ON FRIDAYS ONLY

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ACROSS

8   Unusual name saves unintelligent person from the east (6) EXOTIC {CIT{OX}E}<=

9   For the most part, Spanish city hosts free game of football (8) GRIDIRON {G{RID}IRONa}

10 Situation of South American wrestler near Brazilian city (8) SCENARIO {S}{CENA}{RIO}

11 Encrypt conservative poem by nurse (6) ENCODE {C}{ODE}<=>{EN}

12 Chaotic mind will move like a wheel (8) WINDMILL*

13 Adjust old payment incorporating interest, primarily (6) ORIENT {O}{R{In...t}ENT}

14 Try to break bad items for self-interest (7) EGOTISM {E{GO}TISM*}

17 Greedy sister and husband adopt a mischievous child (7) SELFISH {S{ELF}IS}{H}

20 Rice dish made by father and girl (6) PAELLA {PA}{ELLA}

22 Mixing hard rock with pop? It may not be kosher for some people! (4,4) PORK CHOP {H+ROCK+POP}*

25 Revises morning targets (6) AMENDS {AM}{ENDS}

26 An increase in the wavelength of light found in space around plastic shed (3,5) RED SHIFT {R{SHED*}IFT}

27 Forsaken soldiers hiding in food shop adjacent to court (8) DERELICT {DE{RE}LI}{CT}

28 Last piece of tofu added to very rare frozen dessert (6) SORBET {BE}{Tofu}<=>{SO}{R}

DOWN

1   Praising college instead of student? That’s harsh! (8) EXACTING EXA(-l+c)CTING

2   Drunk son united with daughter outside bar (6) STONED {S}{ONE}{D} over {T}

3   A tax on certain goods entering a town in Romania during first day of last quarter (6) OCTROI {RO} in {OCT 1}

4   Insignificant gunmen leaving base (7) IGNOBLE IGNOraBLE 

5   Mountain in America, say, endlessly emits rocks and unknown source of oxygen and neon (4,4) TIME ZONE {EMITs}*{Z}{Ox...n}{NE} I feel definition is inadequate

6   Cook around lunch time following Frenchman’s pranks (8) MISCHIEF {CH{1}EF}<=>{M IS}

7   Ground adjoining meeting place becomes wet (6) SODDEN {SOD}{DEN}

15 Brilliant story — celebrated without a hint of objection (8) TALENTED {TALE}{NoTED}

16 Fur sale’s managed by people (8) SEALSKIN {SALES*}{KIN}

18 Safe cots, maybe! (4-4) SCOT-FREE {COTS}* [RA]

19 Talk about training and work (7) OPERATE {O{PE}RATE}

21 Rent a room at the entrance for a band (6) ARMLET {LET}<=>{A}{RM}

23 Essentially wrap food and vegetable (6) RADISH {wRAp}{DISH}

24 Division of company wanting to expel head of sales (6) COHORT {CO}{sHORT}

Reference List

South = S, Conservative = C, Nurse = EN(Enrolled Nurse), Old = O, Husband = H, Hard = H, Soldiers = RE(Royal Engineers), Rare = R, College = C, Student = L, Son = S, Daughter = D, Bar = T,  Romania = RO, Gunmen = RA(Royal Artillery), Unknown = Z, Frenchman = M, Training = PE, Room = RM, Company = CO

TalePiece

By Dr RKE

TELL-TALE BAND

Dr. Amanda Davison was the only woman in the COHORT of 5 new residents who had joined the very EXACTING abdominal surgery residency at the McGill University hospital, Toronto. The Chief was Prof. Matt Bernstein, a TALENTED surgeon, who was reputed to OPERATE as dexterously with the left hand as he did with the right. Naturally with such talent comes a streak of EGOTISM. Need I say, he was a tough taskmaster, who would not let any resident go SCOT FREE without completing all the paperwork- never mind that the resident had not slept for 36 hours. He would select one resident for roasting every week but he was gracious enough to make AMENDS by inviting that resident for a weekend dinner at his house with delicacies such as juicy PORK CHOPS and RADISH on the side, PAELLA and SORBET.

On one SODDEN snowy night in December, Amanda was called to the ER at 4 am. It was hard for her to ORIENT herself when she was rudely awakened by the phone in the duty resident’s room, as she had hit the sack just 10 minutes earlier. It was the usual harried SCENARIO in the ER, with STONED hypothermic IGNOBLE DERELICTS from the streets brought in by the cops and accident victims. But Amanda was called in to see a thirtyish woman in a SEALSKIN jacket, complaining of sudden severe pain in the right lower part of the abdomen and vomiting. The patient was shivering and so without taking off the jacket fully, Amanda opened only the front zipper, to examine the abdomen. She found the rebound tenderness so classical of acute appendicitis. For all the advancements in the medical field, appendicitis remains a clinical diagnosis and no investigation can conclusively rule in or out appendicitis. Amanda ordered the routine blood work-up instructed the nurse to shift the patient to the OR for emergency appendectomy. On her way to the OR in the elevator, she was mentally rehearsing the steps of the operation- make a GRIDIRON lower quadrant abdominal incision perpendicular to one-third the way on the line from the iliac spine to the umbilicus… etc. These steps of the surgery get ENCODEd in the brains of residents after a few years but in the beginning, one has to make an effort to do a mental revision.

What a let down was it then for Amanda to find an absolutely healthy-looking appendix at surgery! Her first thought was “Chief is going to tear me to pieces in the morning” and with a rising fear she closed the abdomen. Exhausted, she dropped off in the surgeons’ lounge in the OR. Precisely at 7am Bernstein walked into the OR lounge and asked “Amanda, what MISCHIEF have you been up to, why on earth did you operate on Mrs. Logan?” Amanda braced herself for a week of roasting…..

If only Amanda had taken off the sealskin jacket of Mrs.Logan fully, she would  have seen the medical info ARMLET worn by her that declared she had AIP. Mrs. Logan was known to have an EXOTIC disease called acute intermittent porphyria (AIP), that presents repeatedly with abdominal pain mimicking acute appendicitis. This disease needs only medicines and surgery is contraindicated. As per routine hospital practice, the ER nurse had removed everything that Logan wore before changing her into the OR gown and the tired, overworked Dr.Amanda was oblivious of that tell-tale band. Thus, she learnt a doctor’s life-lesson the hard way- “if you don’t strip the patient, your license may be stripped” 

Note: This is based on a true incident. Names and places changed.