Life in Emergistan

This compilation of Dr. Edwin Leap's best-loved columns is a candid look inside the mind of an emergency physician, and as always, Dr. Leap is thought-provoking and compassionate, letting other emergency physicians know they're not alone.   Preface The Republic of Emergistan - what a place! If you've ever been to an emergency department as a patient or worked in an emergency department, you understand the bizarre geography, culture, customs, and populations of the vast country I have named Emergistan. It was there that I planted our standard: a vulture holding a stethoscope and syringe on a field of red for blood, green for pus, and blue for hypoxia. I claimed that wild land for all of us, although admittedly, I have named myself lifetime ruler.  These columns touch on various aspects of, as the title says, life in Emergistan. Some funny, others touching, and still others just an attempt to express the struggles we face as we continue to try to settle our country, which is largely untamed despite our best efforts.  I hope you find humor, meaning, or solace. Some readers may be offended; so be it.  In the immortal words of an old, dear friend, "If you don't make somebody mad once a shift, you're not doing your job right." My life in Emergistan has been quite an adventure for the past 20 years that I've been practicing and for the past 14 years taht I've been writing my monthly column, Second Opinion, in Emergency Medicine News.  I'm confident that it will remain a thrill, at least until I go native and disappear into the dark wilderness that is the Republic of Emergistan.