[Coffee_Please]

i'm at sixth form and will hopefully go on to do medicine buuut...
i shadowed a surgeon and an anaesthetist today at work exp, and i was set to watch a colon tumour removal!
The anaesthetist injected the patient with the anaesthetics through his back and it took quite a while to find the right place. He injected the patient quite a lot, and the needle actually popped causing the patient to bleed a lot. I started to black out and eventually fainted
I've always been fine with blood and needles, and i've never fainted before until today. Is it bad that i reacted this way to needles(considering that i want to study medicine)? has anyone else experienced a one-off experience like this :/?

[abismith123]

It totally fine - I fainted watching a nurse literally yanking stitches out of a patient resulting in the sudden appearance of a large open wound. I was pretty embarrassed but the nurses told me that when the junior doctors and medical students watch a procedure for the first time at least a couple usually pass out. We just got it out the way early!

[laurie:)]

don't worry about it

i fainted on my first day of work experience on intensive care, and my first day in paeds - hospitals are generally very warm, you do a lot of standing up, and usually you're a bit nervous and excited. they gave me a bed to lie down on, some water, took my BP and blood sugars, and off i went (felt so awkward being looked after because i fainted, bearing in mind i was in ICU ) so its fine if you faint, its the perfect environment for fainting

you'll probably find a lot of junior doctors who faint at work, and medical students who faint during dissections - its natural, and you're only a human being after all

i truly understand how it feels to feel so worried about fainting during work experience, but honestly, its not that big of a deal

im actually scared of needles (only the ones that i know are going into my arm lol) and im sure so are a lot of med hopefuls, so fainting when you see a needle wont be that rare

[purplefrog]

Perfectly normal, you'll have medical students fainting throughout their course too - either in dissections, watching surgeries in placements or even when tending to some gory wounds in A&E whilst being supervised.

[TattyBoJangles]

I'm sure it's pretty normal. I got to see open heart surgery when I did work experience in a paediatric hospital, and they actually commented that I was doing "abnormally well" - as in, I'd not shown any signs of fainting. They actually expected me to and were more surprised that I didn't, which tells you something - it's normal. Don't worry about it.

That said, certain things now make me gag. The smell of burnt meat reminds me of when they opened the pericardium with "electrocoagulation" and when I had my braces off I was gagging because the smell of the glue being taken off my teeth was remarkably like the smell given off when they sawed through the sternum.

[Pandabär]

Don't worry about it. When I was shadowing anaesthetists in theatre watching some pretty bloody stuff (especially the orthopaedic surgery), EVERY single anaesthetist asked me if I felt okay around blood, whether I was okay standing up, and told me to sit on the floor if I felt faint. Why? Because they said it happens to plenty of medical students. It's nothing to be embarassed about, and you won't be the first or the last that it happens to.

I've always been fine, but I always keep water and a cereal bar on me, and I don't stand still for too long (I keep exercising my leg muscles...it helps).

Actually, come to think of it, the only time I've ever felt a bit faint was in A&E. Which is odd, because there was no blood involved. I think it was more to do with the heat of the room (the A&E I did work experience in is boiling hot, even in winter!)

[laurie:)]

(Original post by TattyBoJangles)
That said, certain things now make me gag. The smell of burnt meat reminds me of when they opened the pericardium with "electrocoagulation" and when I had my braces off I was gagging because the smell of the glue being taken off my teeth was remarkably like the smell given off when they sawed through the sternum.

i find the smell, well, not nice but... pleasant? agreeable? loads of my friends were talking about the smell but i really dont have a problem with it loool

walked out of the theatre feeling hungry (although that may have been cause it was a 6 hour operation and it was 11pm at the time lool)

[Onee-chan]

It's really alright OP! I fainted during a keyhole surgery and someone on the same work experience fainted during endoscopy...

[Tyraell]

(Original post by laurie:))
i find the smell, well, not nice but... pleasant? agreeable? loads of my friends were talking about the smell but i really dont have a problem with it loool

walked out of the theatre feeling hungry (although that may have been cause it was a 6 hour operation and it was 11pm at the time lool)

I forgot myself and mentioned my guilty pleasure in this smell while scrubbed in for a knee replacement once, fortunately the registrar agreed...

Also, as has been said, fainting isn't that uncommon. I'm quite prone to getting the pre-fainting feeling myself. Not least, it happened when I was on a night shift recently, having been to the gym that evening, not having had enough water and having been up all that day. This time I got 'dizzy' not once, but at two separate times during the night. You just have to recognise that it's coming and remove yourself safely from the situation (which for many means lying on the floor with legs elevated).

[TattyBoJangles]

(Original post by laurie:))
i find the smell, well, not nice but... pleasant? agreeable? loads of my friends were talking about the smell but i really dont have a problem with it loool

walked out of the theatre feeling hungry (although that may have been cause it was a 6 hour operation and it was 11pm at the time lool)

Which smell, the flesh-burning or the bone-sawing? :P

[tomkeys]

Almost fainted within an hour of going on to a ward on the first day of my first work experience placement. They can be so hot and stuffy! No worries, OP, I think quite a few of us have been there!

[halfadoc]

Hey I still feel faint quite a lot, usually due to the heat and standing up etc but sometimes squeamishness. (this might amuse you op: http://www.halfadoctor.blogspot.co.u...-number-1.html , its what happened one time when I was feeling faint :/)

But on the plus side it does seem to be getting better in that it occurs less often these days, and the worst time I experienced it was when I was on work experience in surgery myself (and it def caused me to worry about whether I could cope with medicine as well), so I wouldn't worry, as you can see from all the responses above you would far from be alone in feeling faint/ fainting occasionally. Oh and squeamish wise I think once you've seen the same thing a few times it tend to become routine and not feel like that anymore

[JoElgar]

I'm sure I would be the Same, the first time experiencing something like that would be overwhelming. This is a bit off topic, but I'm in year 12 and can't seem to get work experience anywhere! How on earth did you manage to shadow a surgeon?

[Future_Dr]

When I did mine, last month, I really feared that I would faint. But I convinced myself that it just a normal procedure and One day I will have to do all that stuff. But unfortunately I didn't get to witness anaesthetics.

But yeah, it's perfectly normal. It shows that you haven't done it before and that's what a work experience is for, to get an experience of the life of a doctor, it only shows that you experienced what you saw. You will get used to it.

[Future_Dr]

(Original post by JoElgar)
I'm sure I would be the Same, the first time experiencing something like that would be overwhelming. This is a bit off topic, but I'm in year 12 and can't seem to get work experience anywhere! How on earth did you manage to shadow a surgeon?

Well I had mine done through my school that. They provided me with a form for WE at an Hospital. So what you would do is to contact you hospital, look at the website and find the correct contact deatials, usually some major hospitals have an undergraduate department which is organised for undergraduate med students for work experience. So ask her you would want work experience. Hopefully they will provide you with one.

[Dragonfly07]

I'm studying human biology and a few people on my course faint at the sight on blood.

My lecturer said that the best way to stop yourself from fainting is to tighten all the muscles in your body as hard as you can.

If you want to get into medicine you've got to get over your fear of blood though.

[Coffee_Please]

Thanks guys! really glad i'm not alone
and agreed, the theatre was much tooo warm
i'm also shadowing some paramedics down in A&E tomorrow... will i be seeing worse/more bloody cases? any advice on how to handle it!?

(Original post by JoElgar)
How on earth did you manage to shadow a surgeon?

my dad is a surgeon/professor and has a lot of contacts! so if you know anyone working in a hospital, ask if you could shadow them (:

[Pandabär]

(Original post by Coffee_Please)
i'm also shadowing some paramedics down in A&E tomorrow...

Do you mean you're going out with them in the ambulance?

[halfadoc]

You might not find A+E as bad as you won't be standing in any one place for as long, but if you do feel faint just be honest and ask to go get some water and sit down for a second

[That Bearded Man]

They don't mind you bringing in water if you're going to be standing in a hot theatre do they?