Could I Have a G & T Please?

Medicine can be pretty boring, especially when all your patients are stable. No cardiac arrest calls, no sound of the emergency buzzer in the wards, no patients acutely deteriorating. I would review my patients, change management plans as neccessary, and hope that they will get better.

So at times like this...we, doctors, need to humour ourselves.


Cancer patients who receive chemotherapy are at risk of developing neutropaenic sepsis. For those without a medical background, neutropaenic means having a low white cell count (white cells are important to fight infection), while sepsis, means infection. So, when your body is low in white cells, you have low immunity, therefore, would be prone to develop different types of infections.

Different hospitals have different hospital protocols for treating neutropaenic sepsis. In my hospital, we like to give our patients G & T!

Yeah, G & T.....Gin & Tonic.

Gin is a spirit which is flavoured with juniper berries. Apparently, juniper berries have medicinal values. They act as a diuretic and also an appetite stimulant. The latter being extremely important in patients with cancer, as their appetite is normally quite poor. I mean, if you think about it, when your appetite is poor, your nutritional intake would be inadequate, and as a result, your body would not have the energy to resist infections....don't you agree??

Well, no, as much as I would like to think that Gin & Tonic could heal infections.....actually G & T stands for Gentamicin and Tazocin...which is a good combination of antibiotics to treat neutropaenic sepsis. =P

See...it is quite pathetic, I know...but at least it lifts the spirits of our patients up, when you joke with them about their antibiotics.

Having said that, I've heard that in certain special circumstances (ie, where conscious patients who are nearing their end of life or around christmas period), a small dose of alcohol has been prescribed on their drug chart, if it was requested by the patients, and if the doctors were given the green light by their boss. Being in hospital is pretty miserable...so we like to keep some of them happy! Cheers!