The Anatomy Atlas

There was a small Unit library, with various surgery books, maintained in Doctor’s Duty room of Surgery Unit III in AIIMS, New Delhi. 

The books there were donated by the doctors themselves and some by patients. The books were kept in an open locker which was accessible to all the doctors of the unit 24 x 7. Yet there was no pilferage or loss of books as all the doctors of the unit used to follow strictly the rule of the unit head Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji (Fictional Name) regarding the unit library. 

The rule was that under no circumstance the books from the library will be taken outside the Duty room, not even in the ward.

The library was a boon to the doctors as they can consult it even during odd hours, such as late-night when they were on emergency duties. Even the faculty members, including Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji, used to come in between operation or before going to Operation theatre to brush up or review the steps or anatomy of the operation.

For Non-Medicos: Anatomy is the basic branch of medicine which deals with the structure of the human body, such the various tissues, organs, blood vessels, muscles, bones, etc. Thorough knowledge of the anatomy of the part/region being operated by the surgeon is must to avoid any injury to important structure and perform the operation perfectly.

Dr. Dev (Fictional Name) who was a junior resident in the Surgery Unit III noticed a new book in the unit library locker. It was Giant Atlas of Anatomy (Fictional Name). The atlas had excellent diagrams and photographs of the anatomical structure of the human body. He found to it to be an excellent book to learn and revise the anatomy while on duty in the unit.

He noticed that even Dr. TK Chaturji consult the book in between cases and even otherwise. His respect for the book further increased after seeing Dr. Chaturji using the book.

After a few months, he noticed that the book was suddenly missing from library locker. As he was busy in the daily ward work he did not pay any attention to it.

 A few days later, Dr. MK (Fictional Name) a junior resident, who was senior to Dr. Dev, was assisting the senior resident in an operation in the operation theatre (OT). Other unit doctors were standing and watching the operation in OT. 

Dr. Tarun Kumar Chaturji suddenly stormed in the OT. Looking angrily at the unit doctors, he demanded, who has taken the ‘Giant Atlas of Anatomy’ from the unit library?

It appeared that Dr. Chaturji wanted to revise the anatomy related to a certain operation which he was to do later in the day. When he searched for the atlas of anatomy, he was surprised to not find it in the library locker. Knowing Dr. Chaturji strict rule of not taking any books outside even the duty room from the departmental library, everyone was stunned. 

All work stopped in the OT and everyone silently looked at each other, as if enquiring by their eye, who was the culprit of this felony?

After few seconds of silence, Dr. MK hesitantly replied, ‘I had taken the atlas to my hostel room.’

Dr. TK Chaturji angrily remarked, ‘Look at this creature. Taking the atlas to his room, when he does not study anything at all’ and angrily left the OT.

After Dr. Chaturji has left, the surprised unit doctors looked at Dr. MK and asked, ‘Why did you take the atlas to your room when you know Dr. Chaturji does not like the books to be taken even outside the duty room?

Dr. MK replied, ‘I took the atlas to my room as it was my personal book!’

It happened that Dr. MK had purchased the book during his second year of junior residency. As he was most of the time in the hospital due to heavy patient workload, he had placed the book along with the other books in the unit locker to read whenever he gets some time. 

When his third year of residency had started and he found more free time to spend in his hostel room, he took his atlas book to study in his room. Nobody had noticed his name written in the first inner page of the book and everyone assumed that someone had donated the book to the unit library.

So Dr. MK got scolded for taking his own book to his room.

If you bring some book, equipment, article to your office or workplace, better keep it separate from the official articles. It is not the just junior staff even senior employees and doctor may get blamed for taking their own things back with them outside their office building. See another example of senior doctor: The Slide Projector

(Based on allegedly true incident)

— ND

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DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Practice should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost. 

DISCLAIMER: This article is intended only for fun purpose. The author does not promote or recommend any behavior illustrated here or claim it to be useful. Use of the information herein is at you one's own risk. Before trying to emulate or follow anything the reader is well advised to take into account ethical, moral, legal and other considerations. The author recommends that Medical Education should be of the highest ethical and moral level keeping in mind the interest of the patient as foremost and according to MCI and other Board’s norm.