The Buddha Says

My best time at a laparoscopic cholecystectomy yet - 36 minutes flat. My previous best time was 45 minutes. And, no I wasn't racing against time. Honestly. It is always a bad idea to race against time, especially in elective surgery. I just got lucky this time. Like a boss of mine said, the more operations you do, the luckier you get.

I have created a new MessagesTa.php for the Wikipital project. This contains a larger number of translated messages in tamil than the default file that ships with MediaWiki 1.7 . A lot has been derived from the work done for the Tamil Wikipedia but I have added a considerable amount of stuff. This file, I hope, will be very useful for all Tamil Wikis. Remember to replace விக்கிபிட்டல் with your own project's name or {{SITENAME}} before you install using this file. You can download this file from here . While at it, also check out விக்கிபிட்டல் . Please link to this blog to download the file until I upload it to a more permanent location. I don't want people cursing me for a broken link to my googlepages.

Wikipital is now available in Tamil. There are a few issues that I will iron out over the next few days. It took a good deal of work to get the MessagesTa.php file in order inspite of the fact that many of the messages have already been translated for the tamil wikipedia project . The completed file has got a much larger number of translated messages than the default tamil translation file that comes with Mediawiki . I am sure this will be useful for numerous Tamil Wiki projects.Check out my exclusive entry to download this file. விக்கிபிட்டல் உடல் நலம் மற்றும் மருத்துவம் சம்பந்தப்பட்ட தகவல்களை இலவசமாகவும், கோட்பாடின்றியும் அளிக்கின்றது. கூடிய விரைவில் மற்ற மொழிகளிலும் விக்கிபிட்டல் உருவாக்கப்படும்.

How many signs do we see everyday on average? Little boards telling us where to go, what to watch out for, where to tread carefully and a lot more. Shops, roads, cars, buildings - there is a signboard in every one of them. I work in a hospital and have for the past 18 months taken exactly the same route to the surgical ward on level 3. I am curious to see how many signs my eyes glance at everyday. There are plenty - but have I ever read them? Let me try and recollect. 'Cosultant Obstetrician On Call', 'Maternity...???', '???Access to Theatres, ITU, CCU Only', a board on the inside of the lifts listing out all the wards and what floors they are on, 'Ward 3/4', '??Access for Staff Only', etc. I am sure that these are only a fraction of the actual number. I will pick up a dictaphone tomorrow and actually read them all into it as I walk the walk. Oh, and on a completely different note, I completed uploading the tamil version of Wikipital. It is now...

Wikipital is finally online. Thanks a lot to my brother-in-law, an SpR in Paediatrics, the site is online and content is increasing by the day. I am still working on the translation files for Tamil, my mother tongue. That should go live hopefully within the next fortnight. I have used Mediawiki to do this. More later. The site is at www.wikipital.com

The worst of partialities is to withold oneself, the worst of ignorance is not to act, the worst lie is to steal away. - CHARLES PEGUY (1873-1914) A few months ago, I was faced with an exceptionally difficult situation. It was fairly routine to start with. A 68 year old man was brought into A&E with a leaking abdominal aneurysm. He was in hypovolemic shock and I was the surgical doctor on call. It was obvious that he needed urgent surgery and I spoke to the vascular surgeon on call and agreed to transfer the patient to the oeprating theatre while he got to the hospital. The patient was on the operating table, fully anaesthetised, 30 mins after I first saw him in A&E. And, he was deteriorating fast. The consultant anesthetist asked me if I had clamped the aorta before. I said that I had never done it before though I had assisted numerous aneurysm surgeries and knew how to do it. I said I probably could do it if the situation was desperate. At this stage, I asked the theatre s...

I know there are plenty of wikis around. I got interested in contributing to the wikipedia quite recently. I had another project on my mind - inspired by a friend. A website for Indian patients. The aim would be to provide simple, reliable, evidence-based, health/disease related information in english as well as every regional language of the country. The lack of a strong regulatory body for the medical profession combined with the collective ignorance of the common Indian public results in some very sad situations. I have often been a part of this in the past - a hapless spectator watching the system fail again and again. The surest way forward in my opinion is to empower the people with knowledge. With knowledge comes enquiry. With knowledge comes the freedom of choice. Patients can question the decisions taken by their healtcare providers. The informed patient is a formidable entity who can take on the medical practitioners whop often try to squeeze every last paisa out of a sick p...