Resident Year 1

The OB/GYN residency was a prized program sought by many with few accepted. I was both relieved and elated to get in since it gave me a specialty that combined both the medical, obstetrical and surgical challenges I wanted.
The year was divided into 6 months of OB and 6 months of Gyn split into 3 month rotations. The night call was every other night on OB and 2 nights on and 1 off on Gyn. It was a killer year and since we averaged 10 to 15 deliveries a day, you can imagine the number of cases a resident handled, especially complications since we were a high risk center. I figure that I was personally involved in 900 or so deliveries that year and probably 90-100
C-sections. On the Gyn rotation one of the daily duties was being assigned to doing D&C’s on patients that came in the nightly with botched abortions, both criminal or self induced. The chief would round on the patients examining them to be sure they weren’t still pregnant and assign a 1st year resident and an intern to alternately do D&C’s under twilight anesthesia ( Morphine and scopolamine) on the 10 or so patients that were lined up on gurneys every morning like a train waiting in a station. Talk about getting a lot of clinical experience, I did more D&C’s in a month at the “G’s” than some residency programs did in a year. You became proficient over time by the lessons learned in the adage “see one, do one, teach one!”
If nothing else the volume of patients produced clinical material unmatched at other hospitals around the country except for maybe Charity in New Orleans and Cook County in Chicago. Wash U even sent some of their residents to rotate with us though we didn’t reciprocate. And when we had them on our service we busted their sorry asses with work that they weren’t use to.





On Gyn surgery was usually done with a chief paired with a 1st year and the 3rd year paired with the 2nd year and the intern floated between the teams depending on whether there were 1 or 2 interns on the service. By the time your 1st Gyn rotation was over, you pretty much had operated enough that your confidence allowed you to be comfortable making decisions…….because a lot of times the resident above you was no where to be found. (i.e. either moonlighting or in a rendezvous somewhere).
One time I called my chief and told him I had a ruptured ectopic who appeared to be septic and he said he staffed it with Monat and for me to go ahead and explore her. When I opened her up, I immediately knew I had made the wrong diagnosis. There was pus everywhere in the abdomen and it appeared the uterus had been perforated. I was right, she did indeed have an ectopic pregnancy but I had missed the other stuff. I called him back and he was pissed since he would have to give up his motel room and come in.
It was a good thing because we ran into a horrendous case. It turned out that she had an attempt at an abortion and an instrument had passed through her uterus, bowel, liver and diaphragm. This patient eventually died from sepsis through no fault of ours and no one was the wiser since the surgery was done appropriately. What has always stuck in my mind was this young woman had told me a doctor attempted an abortion on her, all be it criminal, he could not be charged when the case went to the district attorney, because what she told me was hearsay on my part when I was questioned by the police.
I had two children and it was really hard trying to have any family life because when I was off I was so tired all I wanted to do was sleep. One time my wife left me baby sitting the two and I fell asleep only to be awaken by what smelled like chili cooking.





What had happened is my two year old had turned on the gas on a stove that had to be lit and gas was escaping into the apartment. Luckily for all of us, the smell awakened me.
Occasionally on weekends we would assemble at some one house or apartment and have an informal party, but I never had to worry about hosting because nobody wanted to come down to the Priitt- Igoe projects.
As I look back, it is really difficult to have a family during a residency because it put a tremendous strain on the relationship.
Your career is paramount and the camaraderie with your fellow residents is a close 2nd and family falls a distant 3rd making it almost impossible to have a successful outcome. Most of the marriages unfortunately did not endure.