Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺

Paediatrician 🩺 | history & war ⚔️ | Clinical pearls + stories that built medicine | Curious doctor, avid reader | Metalhead \m/

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

Key Teaching Points:
✅ Use Kocher criteria to risk-stratify
✅ Septic arthritis = surgical emergency
✅ Transient synovitis = most common, but always follow up
✅ Don't miss Perthes — it's a chronic condition with long-term joint consequences
| #PedsCase #MedEd #Paediatrics

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

🧵 CASE OF THE WEEK

5-year-old boy. Brought in by mum.

"He's been limping for 3 days. He says his hip hurts. He had a cold two weeks ago."

What's your differential? 👇 #PedsCase #Paediatrics #MedEd

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

What about Perthes disease?

It presents similarly — but is insidious and progressive.

X-ray may be normal early. MRI is gold standard.

Risk factors: Male, 4–8 years, hyperactive boys. Bilateral in 10–12%.

If it's not resolving in 4 weeks — image again.

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

@mednomics Nf

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

The children who survived those eras of pandemic — the ones with some innate immunity, the ones whose mothers knew to boil water — became our ancestors.
Every vaccination we give today is the latest chapter in this story. #MedHistory #MilitaryHistory #Paediatrics

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

🧵 Empires have always fallen to microbes as much as to men.

In history, disease has ended more campaigns than any general ever did.

A thread on the times when medicine — or its absence — changed the world. 🌍🦠 #MedHistory #MilitaryHistory

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

These aren't just historical footnotes.
They shaped which civilisations survived, which languages spread, which religions dominated.
Disease is not a footnote to military history. It IS military history.

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

https://t.co/tjmbT5ytUN

[Ray Dalio @RayDalio]

Most people are reluctant to take in information that is inconsistent with what they have already concluded. When I ask why, a common answer is: "I want to make up my own mind." These people seem to think that considering opposing views will somehow threaten their ability to decide what they want to do. Nothing could be further from the truth. Taking in others' perspectives in order to consider them in no way reduces your freedom to think independently and make your own decisions. It will just broaden your perspective as you make them. #principleoftheday

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

Key takeaway:

🔴 <28 days + temp ≥38°C = sepsis workup + empiric treatment. Always.

The cost of over-treating a well infant is low.
The cost of under-treating a sick one is unacceptable.

@drritikchandra | #Paediatrics #MedEd #NeonatalCare

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

Fever in a neonate (<28 days) is a medical emergency until proven otherwise. No "wait and watch." Their immune naivety means a rectal temp ≥38°C demands a full sepsis workup. Every time. #PedsEM #MedEd

[Dr Ritik Chandra 🩺 @drritik__]

A word on parental communication:

This is terrifying for families. A 3-week-old being admitted for a sepsis workup is every parent's nightmare.

Be honest. Be calm. Explain what you are ruling out — and why caution is the kindest thing you can offer.