This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness and pregnancy loss.

Becoming a registrar involved even greater responsibility for Kay. He was usually “the most senior person in clinic” (108) and, therefore, expected to prioritize cases. At the same time, he was closer to achieving his goal of becoming a consultant, and he finally bought a flat with H.

Thursday, 16 August 2007 - Saturday, 19 January 2008

Patient “GL” declared that she wanted to eat the placenta after her delivery. Her baby was born, and while Kay was still delivering the placenta, he saw GL eating blot clots from a kidney dish like “Dracula.” The patient vomited when Kay pointed out her mistake.

Kay was performing an emergency cesarean when an SHO warned that another patient needed a forceps delivery, and the baby had a concerning heart rate. Leaving his first patient’s uterus half-stitched, Kay performed the forceps delivery, and he then responded to two more emergencies before returning to finish stitching up the uterus almost an hour and a half later. Kay recounted the events of his shift to the registrar, who eventually took over. The register replied, “Yeah, that happens” (116).

At the end of a grueling shift, Kay panicked when he saw missed calls and voicemails from