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Show 250 "I'm an obstetrician but you obviously aren't about to deliver a baby." Terri, still standing by my bed, is laughing hysterically. It is the runaway kind of laugh that bumps and bounces out of the mouth to relieve excessive tension and she cannot stop its coming. The doctor is regarding her with a barely restrained distain and turns to leave and I am left alone looking at her. "It's 'Dr. White,'" she is trying to say but is beginning to laugh all over again. "Dr. White?" I am asking. "It's a code. 'Dr. White' is any obstetrician in the hospital. 'Dr. Green' is any available surgeon," she is explaining. Code words on intercom announcements scare fewer patients and visitors. "Someone must have accidently called 'Dr. White' on the overhead when we coded you," she is continuing, giggling yet once again. "I wondered why Dr. Emerson never showed up." Dr. Emerson is the doctor in charge of all intensive care patients in this hospital. He is learning about stiff-man syndrome, Baclofen overdose and terrible muscle spasms. Of course he would not come if 'Dr. White' was paged instead. |