One evening, I received a call from Ghent University Hospital in Belgium. Prof Bart Leroy, an internationally renowned ophthalmic geneticist and chairperson of the department, was on the line.

Where will you be working next year?” asked Prof Jan van Meurs, my vitreoretinal fellowship director, on the first morning of my fellowship, just before we entered the operating room.

Just about halfway through our residency it happens, abruptly, unexpectedly. On a given morning, sometime during the third year of training, our schedule indicates that we”re the chief resident in the Emergency Room of the Rotterdam Eye Hospital.

So, it was a typical busy morning. The outpatient clinics were overbooked and the waiting room was getting restless. I looked over the next chart, half of the notes were missing but that was not unusual.

“It’s upside down,” said Dr Zijlmans. “It’s open, in the bag and upside down.”