Encephalitis

Recently, a house officer of another hospital collapsed during on-call. That briefly catch the attention of the media and created much hotter a discussion within the medical circle.

To many of us, the focus is simple: It is not humane to be on-call every other day for four or five times consecutively, and it is this cruel system created by some inconsiderate extra-terrestrials that ends up with the tragedy.

I beg to disagree - or to stand back and examine the evidence a bit more carefully before jumping to the conclusion.

There are two levels of considerations:

1. Is it viral encephalitis or seizure provoked by sleep deprivation? If it is the former, there is no point to blame the on call system.
   (For visitors of this site that have some medical background, encephalitis would be more likely if the collapse was preceded by fever, headache, and vomiting for a few hours.)
2. If we conclude that it was sleep deprivation, why was that the case?
   (Do not jump to the conclusion that it must be a creature outside the solar system who put up the cold-blooded call list - did the house officer swap her call with others ?)

Yes, I have a personal dislike of extra-terrestrials. But, similar to what Voltaire said, I do not agree with what they do, but I'll defend to the death their right to be fairly judged.