{The Overnight Smackdown}

Digital Illustration for a Medical Journal article titled "The Overnight Smack-down: avoiding on-call arguments"
Andy, the general surgery resident on-call, has had an exhausting night. His head finally touches the pillow at 4 am. At 4:10 am he's paged. When he returns the page, it is clear from his tone of voice that he's annoyed. It's Mark, the senior internal medicine resident, requesting an urgent consult on an 83-year-old man to rule out ischemic bowel. The patient was admitted several days before for an acute chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbation; however, he developed vague abdominal pain and a borderline lactate within the previous 6 hours. Andy wants to wait until the morning or until a computed tomographic (CT) scan is performed. The CT was declined by radiology and Mark doesn't want to wait until morning for a consult. The argument begins and quickly escalates.

I created this surreal portrait of a doctor as a matchstick; quick to flare.

Digital Illustration