Daily Thought: Thank You for the Stethoscope, Laennec!

Jessica is a lively, glamorous, black, slightly bashful, young, female Physicians Assistant, who mentored in the office. One day she was presenting a case to me of a guy she thought might have an inguinal hernia – a “rupture” - where in bad cases a loop of bowel can push down, through the inguinal canal, into the scrotum. Which can be detected by hearing bowel sounds.

The joy of mentoring is the possibility of that the young and newly trained will bring you new ideas.

Jessica broadened my horizons, and prompted me to think it was a good thing that Laennec had invented the stethoscope with which to auscultate (so you don’t have to press your ear to the part you wanted to listen to) when she told me “I auscultated his scrotum but I didn’t hear any bowel sounds.”

No Comments Yet.

Leave a comment