> Sam M wrote:
> > Just a suggestion for a name for patients who, on recovering from one
> > usually rather nebulous complaint immediately develope another
> > unrelated ailment and so on and on....... I have several such. Does
> > anyone else and is there another name for these unfortunates? - not
> > quite hypochondriasis or Munchausen's. They are very difficult to deal
> > with.
>
> Then David J PLews:
>
> >Aren't they called "heart sink" patients?
>
<snip>
>
> My favourite acronym on this topic was described by Edward Shahady, from
> Chapell Hill, North Carolina: the "gomers" - standing for "Get Out of My
> Emergency Room!". He also sweetly describes two syndromes who are in fact
> the Domino Syndrome: the "Oh, by the way, Doc" Syndrome, and the "No sooner
> is one thing fixed than another goes wrong" Syndrome.
>
> Ed Shahady wrote this a long time ago. You can check it at
>
> Shahady E. Uncovering the real problem of "crocks" and "gomers". Consultant
> April 1984: 33-43.
I first saw the word "gomer" used in Samual Shem's "House of God",
which I suspect pre-dated the above article (I read it during my
first year internship in 1981 - God, was it that long ago???).
BTW, The House of God was considered mandatory reading for all
Australian Interns. It is, IMHO, one of the better American black
humour publications and shows particularly poignant insight into
Hospital medicine, and indeed, medicine in general, from the doctor's
perspective. The House of God is the name of a fictitious (?) US
hospital and one of its registrars concocted a list of "rules of the
House of God" which, from memory included such gems as:
There is no body cavity which cannot be reached by a 19 gauge
needle and a strong right arm.
If a medical student and an intern both see a lesion on a chest
Xray, there can be no lesion present.
Gomers go to ground {ie fall out of bed }
Cheers,
Rob Hills
MBBS, Grad Dip Com Stud, MACS
Rx Medical (Creating Quality Healthcare Software)
22 Hardy Street, South Perth, WA 6151, Australia
Phone: +61 9 474 1977 Fax: +61 9 474 1922
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