Dog food, valium and a V8: My night shift in the ‘badlands’ of Adelaide
Dr Ralph Vida recounts three unusual cases during his house-call locum shift.
As part of AusDoc’s 40th anniversary, we have been publishing stories by readers about their most memorable day as a doctor.
This account, by Dr Ralph Vida, now a GP on the Gold Coast in Queensland, dates back to 1985.
I cannot now recall if it was a full moon, but that night the unusual cases piled up on my house-call locum shift in the housing commission badlands of northern Adelaide.
Case one was a call-out to a dishevelled middle-aged woman who sat perched on her filthy sofa and presented with a recent onset of bleeding gums and skin sores.
