Emergencies can arise at any time; this is exactly why there are doctors on call through the night. However, many inconsequential, obvious, and downright bizarre telephone calls can come in the small hours. In a recent discussion on Medscape's Physician Connect (MPC), an all-physician discussion group, doctors discussed some of the weirdest and most memorable of these consultations.
Pediatricians bear the heaviest burden when it comes to fielding what some of them have termed "sleep-wakers." Parental concern, of course, is laudable: A parent with an obvious question during daytime hours might be considered thorough, but a father calling at 3 AM asking whether his 5-month-old son's breasts are too large is something else entirely. The pediatrician who handled that worried father commented, "I had to put the phone on mute while I collected myself. I've never laughed so hard at 3 AM. It took me forever to convince this 'manly man' father that gynecomastia is normal in male newborns."