VIII. Have a bit of fun.

On a busy hospital floor the doctor stops the nurse to brief her on a patient’s condition. “This patient is a fellow physician and my favourite golf partner. His injury is serious and I fear he won’t be able to play golf again unless you follow my orders exactly.”

The doctor then began listing orders: “You must give him an intravenous injection every two hours and an intramuscular injection every half an hour. You must also give a subcutaneous injection in a different location every twenty minutes followed by a second injection exactly five minutes after the first. He must take two pills at exactly every hour followed by one pill every fifteen minutes for eight hours. He must drink no more and no less than ten ounces of water every twenty-five minutes and must void between. Soak his arm in warm water for fifteen minutes then place ice for ten minutes and repeat over and over for the rest of the day. You must do these things exactly as I ordered or his injury won’t heal properly.”

The nurse left the doctor and entered the patient’s room. She was greeted by anxious family and an equally anxious patient. All asked the nurse what the doctor had said about the patient.

The nurse started, “The doctor said that you will live.” Then quickly reviewing the orders, the nurse added, “But you will have to learn a new sport.”

IV. Grammar Exercises

I. Open the brackets using the verbs in the proper tense and voice form.

1. Routes of drug administration (to classify) _______ usually _______________ by application location.

2. Pharmacokinetics (to be) _______ the branch of pharmacology concerned with the movement of drugs within the body.

3. Last month my daughter (to suffer) ___________ from pneumonia. To obtain a general effect the antibiotic (to give) ________________ by intravenous route.

4. If the patient (to be) _______ unconscious, the drugs (to give) _____________ to him by parenteral route.

5. At the moment intradermal injections to identify an allergen (to make) _______ by this scrupulous nurse.

6. At 2 o’clock yesterday a medical practitioner (to show) ___________________ my uncle how to properly inject insulin.

7. My father (to administer) _____ just ______________ heparin, a sulphur-containing polysaccharide that is used as an anticoagulant in the treatment of thrombosis.

8. The physician (to weigh) _____________ all the expected benefits and possible complications, before he (to decide) ____________ to introduce the drug by intraperitoneal injection.

9. The nurses (to discuss) _________________ the methods of making particular local injections for ten minutes when the doctor on duty entered the staffroom.

10. The student (to study) _____________________ the lecture on routes of drug administration for twenty minutes already.

11. The intramuscular injection (to make) _______________ by his wife in contact with a nerve. Serious complications resulted.

12. Intramuscular injection was contra-indicated as the patient (to undergo) _____

_____________ anticoagulant therapy.

13. If the rate of drug elimination (to be) ________ rapid, the speed of drug administration should not be too slow, otherwise the effective therapeutic concentration (not to reach) ______________________________________ .