Why Dr Laud crashed his car
All over the world, doctors in post graduate residency programmes work what some term crazy hours. Sometimes, these doctors go overboard with unintended consequences. Dr Laud’s story represents one of those times.
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It happened on a Sunday. Driving home tired from the Teaching Hospital’s call duty, he decided to make a one-hour stopover at a friend’s house. When he left, he took a lonely rough road to dodge the heavy traffic. Feeling tired, he drove at what he considered a reasonable steady pace.
The wicked combination of fatigue, a chilled air-conditioned environment, soft music in the background and the steady rhythmic movement of the car took its toll. Dr Laud does not recall exactly when he fell asleep. The next thing he heard was loud bang! He had driven straight into a wall.
His bumper and headlights were completely destroyed while the bonnet and the door on the passenger side were seriously dented. He has since spent quite a fortune repairing the car and restoring it to its former glory.
What kind of work had he been doing prior to the accident? As a paediatric surgical resident, he had returned home at 1 a.m. at dawn and at 11 p.m. respectively in the two days preceding the accident.
At work, they had operated on a child with ruptured appendix, another with a perforated bowel from a complicated typhoid infection and had spent some time creating a colostomy for a baby born with an imperforate anus inter alia.
What has changed in Dr Laud’s routine and what guarantees are there that this would not happen again? What would be done differently, I asked? Sounding slightly fatalistic, he answered, “Life continues … I just have to be more careful …” What exactly does being more careful entail, I dug deeper. He then made a most surprising confession, “Well, this is not the first time I am dozing behind the steering wheel.
I can’t even get a place to rent in or near the teaching hospital so I just have to come all the way home – a 45-minute to one-hour drive. Maybe what may help will be for authorities to get us a good resting place. If even not a fully furnished accommodation, some place with one small bed and a table where we can rest while on duty …”
Dr Laud’s story does not appear unique. There are many people engaged in similar fatal sleep–driving situations arising from sheer exhaustion. Seriously overworked and sleep starved, many push themselves to unreasonable limits, all the time assuring themselves that they can manage the rest of the drive.
I do not know what the statistics are for Ghana but in America, it is estimated by the National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep in America poll, that “60 per cent of Americans have driven while feeling sleepy and 37 per cent admit to actually having fallen asleep at the wheel in the past year”. Telltale signs include constant yawning, heavy eyelids, veering off the road or from your lane, frequently blinking, difficulty focusing etc.
As it turns out, sleep deprivation can impair cognitive function as much as alcohol can in addition to impairing coordination, producing longer reaction times, impairing memory and judgement.
In fact British researchers have found that “driving after 17 to 18 hours of being awake is as harmful as driving with a blood alcohol level of .05 per cent, the legal limit in many European countries.”
Suggested short-term solutions include getting active by chewing gum etc. or having a passenger to chat with, turning on the interior light, wiping your face and neck with a wet cloth, opening the car window for a sudden rush of cold wind etc. in the medium to long term, one may get a driver in addition to actually prioritising adequate sleep time in order to maximise function.
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Writer's blog: www.sodzisodzi.com