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Med-types with a Interesting post here.

The internet is great for passing information. And when that's not weaponized it's absolutely great. So read this post if you can. It's well worth it.

posting for posterity:

I have no idea if this question will get to stay up, but it's worth it a shot and could be fun.

If the world went apocalyptic (something like The Walking Dead/The Road/Mad Max where greater society crumbles), what medical speciality would be the most useful?

Assuming very little access to powerful drugs, revolutionary medical technology, etc. I think it's a pretty interesting question and I could see it going in a few different directions.

I have my thoughts, but what do you all think?



answer:

[–]IntensiveNP - Hospitalist 439 points  

None of them. The survivors would just declare the apocalypse a hoax and the billions of dead crisis actors.

Sorry bruh, I'm getting pretty burned out over here.

[–]bigthamaNeurology - Movement Disorders 77 points  

The nice thing about physical forces is they don't care whether you acknowledge them as reality.

As it's unlikely anyone will be around to enforce EMTALA, you can feel free to abandon Karen to her Darwin award fate.

[–]JCjustchillCards PGY-4 7 points  

Physically nauseated at how likely this is...

[–]BruckjoDO Psychiatry 288 points  

Radiology — keen eyesight and able to live underground for decades without sunlight.

[–]CDR_Monk3yPGY-1 (||) 54 points  

My preciousssssssss

[–]-_nightsbane_-Edit Your Own Here 14 points  

Can they live on raw fish though?

[–]CDR_Monk3yPGY-1 (||) 40 points  

Just call it premium sashimi and charge em extra.

[–]-_nightsbane_-Edit Your Own Here 8 points  

Ha! Sashimi would've blown gollum's mind. Why struggle to get raw fish inside a mountain when you can have it delivered.

[–]MeditatingYopeMD heme/onc PGY6 7 points  

Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew!

[–]j_itorMSc in Med|Psychiatry (EU) PGY-4|"Arbiter of Medical Discussion" 259 points  

I think family medicine in a small town who does a few surgeries if you still have those in the US or some type of wilderness medicine.

Most hospital-based specialities use equipment that will not be available in an apocalypse. You cannot take a lab test, CT, MRI, ultrasound or use any surgical equipment you haven't sterilized yourself?

[–]SchmoRogan 111 points  

There’s some love for FM docs!

[–]RASSof4CCRN 102 points  

Yeah one of those old school “Cradle to grave” docs that’s a jack of all trades and still covers the hospital on weekends.

[–]Julian_CaesarMD- Family Medicine 43 points  

FM with surgical training is getting very very rare in the US, simply because the overhead/regulations for using the OR are too much to handle. There are a few older guys who stick around and do it for academic/residencies but they're mostly older.

[–]monchoMD Family Medicine Attending 9 points  

No one's gonna get surgeries in the apocalypse.

[–]minecraftmedicRad ST2 [score hidden]  

People will still get trauma, appendicitis .etc. Sure they might not get the full OR experience, more of a kitchen table and bite down on a stick wrapped with leather kind of deal.

[–]monchoMD Family Medicine Attending [score hidden]  

Appendicitis will have much better outcomes with abx > surgery in the apocalypse.

[–]Julian_CaesarMD- Family Medicine [score hidden]  

Assuming you have access to abx.

[–]monchoMD Family Medicine Attending [score hidden]  

Without abx, you definitely aren't going to survive someone cutting inside you and fiddling with your insides in a non-sterile setting.

[–]Julian_CaesarMD- Family Medicine [score hidden]  

Abdominal appendectomy predated antibiotics by 50+ years. It wasn't always successful, but it was considered better than the alternative of letting the appendicitis run its course.

[–]monchoMD Family Medicine Attending [score hidden]  

Recently we've found out that in many cases abx is non-inferior, particularly in younger people.

[–]SwizzdocMD Internal Medicine [score hidden]  

what's so hard about sterilising instruments?

[–]grey-docFM PGY2 [score hidden]  

Instruments aren't the problem.

[–]Admira1Jackbar [score hidden]  

It’s a clean-contaminated surgery at best. No matter how sterile your instruments without any abx you will still get mad post-op infections

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[–]cloake [score hidden]  

Air. Don't realize how pervasive microbes are, eh?

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[–]BabyOhmuRural GP [score hidden]  

I would bet that in the apocalypse there will be surgeons setting up underground shops with a little stockpiled anesthetic, alcohol, suture, a scalpel and a fine grit sharpening sone, and ideally some morphine. They'd be doing emergency appendectomies, amputations, I&Ds, wound debridements, lac repairs and the like. And there will still be a bunch of OB's somewhere in a buried shipping container doing emergency C-sections.

Source: The Walking Dead

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[–]TheLastArcadianLayman [score hidden]  

I'd predict that there's still a need for appendectomies. Not sure about other surgeries, I'm not a doctor, but that one seems really likely.

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[–]j_itorMSc in Med|Psychiatry (EU) PGY-4|"Arbiter of Medical Discussion" [score hidden]  

In that case I would go for a general surgeon who traveled with MSF to a poor country without enough equipment. Maybe ER. Maybe the red cross but they usually have better equipment.

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[–]compoundfractureMD - Hospitalist 26 points  

People keep saying Wilderness Medicine but the first day of my WM rotation was literally “if something happens to you in the wilderness without ready access to a hospital you’re likely going to die and you assume that risk every time you go out into the Wild.” I basically just learned to Magyver shit with what’s on hand and hope that help can be reached before they die.

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[–]phliuyDO [score hidden]  

That sounds prettg fuckin sweet

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[–]compoundfractureMD - Hospitalist [score hidden]  

It was like doctor summer camp

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[–]grey-docFM PGY2 [score hidden]  

Yes that is what wilderness medicine is about.

Macgyvering shit is a lot easier when you've seen someone do it before, which is why the classes exist

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[–]compoundfractureMD - Hospitalist [score hidden]  

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