Stabbed

The particular chap has been stabbed repeatedly in the back by one of his school mates. Mostly I'm disgusted by the cowardice that leads to back wounds; but I'm intrigued by one element of the management, executed spot-perfect because the on call locum registar that evening is a cardio-thoracic staff grade.

He orders not one but three X rays. The first, normal. The second that night, normal. The third, the morning after, and reviewed by a consultant radiologist (his protocol, not ours) shows the pneumothorax.

Sometimes these investigations aren't quite as pointless as they seem.