I now pronounce you.....Dead

So while I'm sporting a great tan, I had to return to my clinical rotations. This month is internal medicine- ambulatory (office > hospital). So day 1 I familiarized myself with their electronic medical records and see a few patients with high blood pressure and heart disease. Day 2 at 8am, I'm a little groggy. My doctor tells me to go with the man in the suit. I'm thinking a drug rep has brought us breakfast and he'll catch up with us over bacon and waffles. Well, the man in a suit takes me to the back parking lot and I see a hearst! Yep, a hearst with the doors open and he asks if I can pronounce the body dead. He politely says I can crawl in the back to do my examination. I'm no longer half asleep and trying to figure out what the heck I should do.....check for a pulse? listen for a heartbeat? breath sounds? check pupils? skin tone and temperature? Yep, I agreed and officially he's been pronouned dead.

While I thought this story was quite a monumental moment, my friend shared this with me last night. He was doing ICU rounds (6am- again, groggy). He went to check on his first patient who the day before was anxious to go home and do chores for his wife but had some difficulty breathing earlier in the day. Well, my friend draws the curtains, walks in and sees the patient "sleeping". He calls his name, "good morning mr. smith, your favorite medical student is here"... no response....so again, "good morning mr smith, time to wake up"....again, no response...after several minutes of this with no response, the med student realizes the patient is dead- yes, his tongue is hanging out and his arm is floating off the bed. He thinks, "Do I call code blue"- is this guy gonna make it back? or do i just walk away? Do I go tell the nurses?" He elects to tell the nurses who are well aware of this fact and awaiting the priest for last rights. (these nurses are most likely laughing hysterically that a med student tried to waken the dead) My friend is quite mad- he thinks shouldn't there be some kind of code on the door? Black flashcard? door shut? something! He was quite shaken up but the day must go on and he must finish his rounds!