Jury Duty

Last week I was lucky enough to be chosen as a member of the jury for a burglary/theft case.  I was actually looking forward to it and even a little excited.  You have to remember that I was a paralegal for a short time, contemplated going to law school and majored in criminal justice, so this was fun for me.  The case was very short and only lasted a few hours.  Both sides presented their cases in about three, maybe four hours.  The story was something like this:

Sometime between October 15, 5:00 pm, and October 16, 2010 8:00 am, someone broke into a storage unit and stole an ATV and trailer.  No witnesses, no “evidence” no nothing.  January 2011, the victim went to a friend’s house for lunch and saw his atv sitting in the friends shed.  A comparison of serial numbers confirmed that it was indeed his.  The friend was holding the atv for a friend of his sons.  They had been out riding in the sand dunes that previous weekend, and the son’s friend left it there until he could come get it.  The son’s friend had borrowed the atv from his grandfather, and the grandfather Mr. G, bought the atv from a friend on October 16, 2010.  The friend, who is the defendant in the case, said he bought the atv from a woman who was trying to sell it in a parking lot of an outdoor sporting goods store.  The friend, Mr. H, said he overheard her trying to sell it to another person, but that person wasn’t interested.  Mr. H. talked to the woman and she wanted to sell both the atv and trailer for $1,400, even though the est. value was $6,000.  He said it was a good deal and he knew his friend, Mr. G., was looking for a good deal on an atv so he bought it for his friend.  The woman, however, could not be located.  Mr. H. then said he took the atv out to Mr. G’s house to sell to him. 

Mr. G said that Mr. H came over to his house for drinks and played pool when the conversation came up that Mr. H had an atv to sell.  They then went over to look at it and Mr. G decided to buy it. 

Mr. H said he had a sales receipt, but never produced one in court.  Mr. H never said how he purchased the atv, or proved how he purchased it. 

The verdict …

Not Guilty.

WTF?! 

Only 4 people on the jury felt that he was guilty, the other 8 felt he was not guilty.  We spent 4 to 5 hours deliberating back and forth and nobody budged.  In the end the people who knew he was guilty changed our vote just to end the trial.  Part of me really wanted to hang the jury, because I knew that the prosecution would have a stronger case.  Well, I didn’t and neither did the other 4 and he was found not guilty. 

We had a chance to ask the judge and prosecutor questions afterwards, and found out that Mr. H. was a repeat offender and the sales receipt was just a sentence stating he purchased the atv , but wasn’t dated and could have easily been written by anyone.  He refused to talk to the detectives and because of this, the prosecutor couldn’t ask the questions he needed to. 

It was a very frustrating case because I knew he was guilty because his story was way to convenient to be true, and because the guy standing on the street corner is never really standing on the street corner minding his own business.  People in certain fields of work hear this story waaay to often and can smell the bullshit, but I was amazed at how these 8 people gave him the benefit of the doubt right away.  I was a little sad, too.  In the end, the 4 who knew he was guilty felt that it would be better to let a guilty man go than rather than let an innocent man be punished.  All of us agreed that if he is guilty, Karma would get him; but when we found out the additional information, we felt that Karma got us. 

ER Shadowing

As you know I've been shadowing in the ER for the past few weeks.  Until this week, there wasn't anything to special to talk about.  There isn't a lot to write about this week either, but this week I got to DO something.  It wasn't anything major, but it was still kinda cool to do it, versus watching it.  A patient fell and hit their head on cement.  They had a cut on their forehead that required stitches, but since they came in by ambulance, they were on a stretcher with neck brace.  The staff had to make sure she didn't brake anything before they could remove all the braces, and in order to do that, they have to roll the patient on their side so they can check their spine.  One person is at the head, and two to three people are on each side.  The person on the head counts to three and they roll the patient on their side so the doc and feel along the spine to make sure nothing is sore.  Well I got to be at the head.  :o)  Of course there was nothing wrong with the patient, aside from a gash that needed three stitches, but it was still kinda neat to do.  I also got to watch them stitch up the gash, but that is nothing new really, considering I've had my fair share of stitches! There were some interesting cases - abdominal pain, chest pain, pneumonia,  and some really neat people working that night, so it made it more enjoyable.  Last week was pretty slow and the staff wasn't as interested in showing me around.

I can't believe that it has been 4 weeks since I started shadowing in the ER!

Personal Statement and More MCAT Stuff

In about two weeks the application system, AMCAS, opens and hundreds (thousands?) of neurotic premed students will be madly filling in their activities, courses taken, and of course, their personal statements.  The personal statement is probably one of the most important parts of the application.  It‘s your introduction, the “first impression” if you will, so it has to be good.  *cue the panic*    I had to go through this last year, but because I am reapplying, it almost makes it harder, because I have to rewrite the whole thing.  Why is this harder? Because I have to say pretty much the same thing I did last year, in a new and refreshing way.  *sigh*  I have been studying for the MCAT for the past two months and that is really the only thing on my mind right now, so I am not really in the writing mood – which isn’t good because there is a writing section on the MCAT.  Ha ha ha    

Even though AMCAS opens around May 9^th, applications can’t be submitted until June 1^st,  which gives me a couple weeks to write my personal statement and fill in my application. However, I won’t get my MCAT score back until June 21-22, so technically I have about a month to get everything done.  My goal is to have everything done by June 20^th so I can submit my application the moment I get my score back.  The ideal situation would have been to take the MCAT in April and get my score back in May, then submit my application on June 1^st, but that wouldn’t have given me enough time to study.   Guess I'll have to deal with a June 22nd submission date.  That's still pretty early.

ER Shadowing

Since I didn't make the cut into med school this year, I have been trying to find some more opportunities to shadow and keep involved in medicine. I am interested in doing emergency medicine, and a friend of mine actually shadowed in an ER.  She was able to give me the contact information and help set it up so I could start shadowing there too!  Awesome!  Yesterday was my first day, well night, and it was very interesting.    It's a smaller ER, so most of the major traumas get shipped over to the bigger hospitals, but it was still very steady.  The staff was very laid back and fun, and due to the way they change shifts, I got to shadow two different Dr.'s.  The cases I sat in on were very similar to what you would see at a primary care/family practice, which I find kinda funny, and of course i got to see a couple drug seeker cases.  I think I was more interested in the drug seekers than the primary care cases because of the wonderful acting.  :o) The sad thing was the patients were only in their early 20's! What a waste.

Another sad case was a 90 yo diabetic patient with gangrene in both feet/legs.  They were in pretty bad shape, and the patient was refusing surgery, which meant he was going to die. The family understood the patient's wishes, and they all seemed to understand what was going to happen, and they were fine with that.  The patient was admitted and another physician was coming in to talk over some other options, but there was no guarantee the other options were going to work either.


I really enjoyed seeing the cases that came in, and I really enjoyed the chance to talk to the ER doc's.  After talking to Dr. F. and hearing how he went from family practice to emergency med, and the reasons he changed,  I am thinking that emergency med is a good fit for me.  I know I will have a lot of experiences in medical school and something else might come along, but right now emergency med is really calling to me.  The variety of cases, the calm before the storm, the storm, the eye of the storm, and then the calm again.  I find that I do really well under pressure and I like to be busy.  Yes, it is nice to be able to sit down for a breather, but being busy keeps me focused.  I think I am really going to enjoy this experience and hopefully I can get a letter of recommendation out of it!  Oh, and Dr. F went to KU too, plus he has family in Bozeman, MT. :o)   He was pretty cool and I really liked his doctoring style, so I hope I get to shadow him some more.  I'll keep ya'll updated!

Some Crochet Fun

After I took my full length practice exam last weekend, I kicked back and played around with some crochet patterns. I had some left over yarn to play with so I started the patterns below. The first one is a 12 x 12 granny square. The patter is to make 12 squares roatating the colors. The picture isn't the greatest because I took it with my phone, but I really like the color combo. The pattern in the second picture is from an afghan that Brads grandmother made for him. It took me a couple tries to get it down right, but I got it. I like the colors in it too. I am thinking about buying more yarn to finish them both and then maybe selling them. We'll see though. I have about three afghans to finish before I can start on these! So I guess I better get crocheting!

The Patient Part II

Since I'm sure you are all on the edge of your seat... I took Bubbs into the vet on Saturday to get his stitches out.  Everything looks fine and he is so happy to have the collar off!  The poor guy though, I put a flea collar on him yesterday and you swear I yelled at him!  He seemed so heartbroken!  I brushed him and petted him and snuggled with him for a bit, and finally he started purring and acting a little better. I felt so bad!  But he is better and I am glad that's over with.

Another Practice Test

I took another practice test this weekend and scored the same as last time… which is good because I have improved, but bad because I really should have scored a lot higher.  The reason I am not scoring higher, is because I pick an answer, then change it!!!  ARRRGH!   As I am reading the answers, I’ll pick one, then read them again then change it.  I need to start trusting my instincts!  This is frustrating because it’s like a little voice in my head that says ‘A’, but then another voice comes in louder and stronger and says, it is ‘B’.  It’s like subliminal messaging flashing through my mind – it’s there for a second, just enough time for me to “see” it, but not think about it, and then it’s gone.  Sort of like a knee-jerk reaction, but I don’t stick with it because I try to reason out the other answers – which are apparently wrong.  So, I need to work on trusting my instincts and stop doubting myself.  This is easier said than done though.  Sigh.