A lot of us often take doctors and nurses for granted, expecting them to attend to our needs ASAP because we need their assistance but unknown to many, these medical professionals are overworked and have to stay up for over 24 hours just to attend to as many patients as they could!
Can you imagine not sleeping in 24 hours – and doing that on a regular basis? Yeah, I was sure we all can’t last a day without getting any sleep at all!
In China, a surgeon was photographed sleeping on the floor with his mask and cap still on but before you bash him for sleeping on the job, let’s check out the real scenario first. You see, Dr. Luo Heng had curled up on that small mattress on the floor after doing his fifth surgery in a continuous 28-hour shift!
The photo was taken at a hospital in Dingyuan County in Anhui province, China. Shared on Chinese social media site Weibo, the photo quickly went viral.
As expected, the photo gained mixed reactions from people. While there were many who praised this young doctor for his dedication, a lot were also quite concerned not just with his health but also with how he would function as an overworked doctor to his patients.
After all, everyone knows that you can’t always be in tiptop shape, especially if you haven’t had any sleep. So, doctors who frequently do a similar thing as what Dr. Luo was doing could actually be endangering the lives of their patients! Do you believe so, too?
Well, the sad truth here is that there are just too many patients and too little doctors – and unless that problem gets solved in the near future, this practice of continuous shifts would likely last for a long time…
What is a Surgeon?
A surgeon is a medical practitioner qualified to do surgery. Not all doctors are surgeons but all surgeons are doctors.