October 10th, 2009 by Emergiblog in Better Health Network, News, True Stories
Tags: Amy Tenderich, Dr. Val, Health 2.0, Kim, Nursing, Trisha Torrey
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All I could think of when I saw this photo was Gordon Ramsay screaming that the Cream of Wheat was lumpy.
But she’s smiling, so this can’t be Hell’s Kitchen.
It’s more like pot-luck-in-the-break-room.
Cherry Ames got in trouble for “sampling bread and butter” in the ward kitchen, which was apparently against the rules back in the day.
Now you can come into my department and have a four-course meal laid out on the table, which is great for morale but bad for those of us babes with too much “back”.
And when it really does look like “Hell’s Kitchen” in the ER, nothing boosts your serotonin like a big, chocolate brownie, or nacho cheese Doritos!
Sometimes it feels like my shift is one big exercise of will power, and I usually poop out by by 0300. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Emergiblog*
October 9th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in News, True Stories
Tags: Deer, Emergency Medicine, Infectious Disease, Lyme Disease, Motor Vehicle Accidents, Nova Scotia, State Farm, Ticks
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Thanks to Glenn Reynolds over at InstaPundit, I learned that motor vehicle collisions with deer are up 18% compared to 5 years ago.
State Farm calculates the chances of a West Virginia vehicle striking a deer over the next 12 months at 1 in 39. Michigan remains second on that list. The likelihood of a specific vehicle striking a deer there is 1 in 78. Pennsylvania (1 in 94) and Iowa (1 in 104) remain third and fourth respectively. Montana (1 in 104) moved up three places to fifth.
Now, aside from the fact that deer present challenges to our driving friends in West Virgina, Michigan, and beyond – they are also the definitive host for Lyme disease. Ticks feed on the deer (who, by the way, become infected with Lyme spirochetes but suffer no symptoms) and on unsuspecting humans – passing the infection along. And so when deer populations increase, Lyme disease often does too. Read more »
October 6th, 2009 by GruntDoc in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Cardiology, Cath Lab, EKG, Emergency Medicine, Heart Attack, LAD, MI, Myocardial Infarction, Normal EKG, Occlusion
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I sent a guy with a normal EKG to the cath lab. Let me tell you my side of the story.
Dude was minding his own business when he started having crushing, substernal chest pain. I see dude by EMS about 45 minutes into his chest pain. He’s had the usual: aspirin, 3 SL NTG’s an IV, a touch of MS (I can abbreviate here, as it’s not a medical record) and is continuing to have pain.
He describes it like you’d expect (elephants have a bad rep in the ED), and looks ill. Frankly, he looks like a guy having an MI. Sweaty, pale, uncomfortable, restless but not that ‘I’ve torn my aorta’ look. The having an MI look.
Every EM doc knows the look. I didn’t ask about risk factors.
On to the proof: the EKG. EMS EKG: normal. ?What? Yeah, maybe there’s some anterior J-point elevation, but not much else. Our EKG: Normal. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
October 5th, 2009 by Dr. Val Jones in Humor, True Stories
Tags: Automated, Automatic Translation, English, HIT, Medical Terminology, Spanish, Technology, Translation
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Health IT is valuable in many ways and I do believe it will revolutionize how we practice medicine. However, we’ve got a long way to go yet, especially in auto-translating English into other languages. This short exercise in English-Spanish translation (through a computer software program) reminds me of how far off “seamless” health technology really is…
(My mother is fully bilingual in Spanish and English and decided to test the auto-translator service with a sentence from a book. Here is the result:)
ENGLISH: He popped a deep-fried sardine into his mouth and washed it down with a few swallows of beer.
LITERAL TRANSLATION OF SPANISH RESULT: He punctured a sardine fried deep in his mouth, and he laundered it near the bottom along with some swallows (referring to the birds) made of beer.
October 4th, 2009 by DrWes in Better Health Network, True Stories
Tags: Code Blue, Code Team, Coordination, Death, Emergency Medicine, Theater, Unsung Heroes
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It was midnight and the Emergency Room door opened like a curtain on a Broadway. A lone man sat in blue at the countertop, writing. Behind him, the chorus, working feverishly on the protagonist – the script rehearsed a thousand times before.
Clothes off, Story?, facemask, C-collar, endotracheal tube, breath sounds, telemetry, IV’s, blood work, pulse ox, Stop.
Resume, Pulse?, patches, register, call the lab, Allergies?, epi, atropine, Pressure?, twitching, NG, x-ray, Stop. Pulse?
Resume, pacing wire, max output, capture?, not quite, “potassium?”, not ready, blood gas, foley, Capture! Stop.
Resume, blood gas, no capture, damn, tweak, better, pulse?, yes. Lab?, no, Which meds?, cardiologist, Go.
Vent, hoist, prep, stick, contrast, open, shock, balloon pump, a-line, movement, labs, blood gas, peep, transport, c-spine, CT, Go.
Then intermission. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
