Chest Tube

So the girl who was hit by a car 10 days ago is still unidentified. I can't imagine why nobody has come forward to identify her yet. Anyway, we noticed that she developed a large pleural effusion (fluid in the space between her lungs and her chest wall) so we decided to put a chest tube in to drain it. Well, I asked to do it and one of the other doctors said he would supervise me. Little did they know that I have never done one before. I prepped the patient in the usual sterile fashion and proceeded to make an incision on the side of her chest. I then took my index finger and shoved it into the incision until I felt her 5th or 6th rib. I gently moved my finger along her rib until I was in the space between two ribs and could feel the pleura (the membrane that lines the underside of the ribcage). I then carefully pushed a metal instrument into the pleura until I felt it pop open. I was greeted with a wonderful gush of yellow fluid which meant I was in the right place. My next move was to insert a plastic tube into the space and suture it into place. We connected the tubing to an apparatus that sucks the fluid out of the chest. With the mission accomplished, I then divulged to the other doctors that I had never inserted a chest tube before. I have to say that this stuff is a lot of fun.