June 13th, 2010 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Better Health Network, Opinion, True Stories
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I was about to leave work a few nights ago when EMS was dispatched to a 10-50, which is a motor vehicle accident.
Enough years in emergency care and that tone makes your radar, but doesn’t create much of a blip. Many of those crashes have EMS arrive, only to discover no injuries. Some have patients transported, with minor problems that lead to their speedy evaluation and discharge from our ER. A few have serious, life-threatening injuries. They take all our speed, skill and attention to save life and limb. And often, require transfer to other facilities.
But this last call was none of those. Around 1AM the radio traffic crackled back to dispatch (which we could hear in the emergency department): “Probable Signal Nine.” Signal Nine means the victim is dead at the scene. Not “Dead On Arrival” (DOA) at the hospital, but no hospital necessary.
I knew the paramedics were finished when they asked dispatch to call for the coroner. And my heart sank a little. For all that a multi-trauma is work, I’d rather do it anytime than have someone die, and someone learn of the death. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
June 13th, 2010 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
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Occam’s razor is a well-known logical principle often applied in medicine. It states that the simplest explanation for a complaint or symptom is usually the correct one. Most of the time, Occam’s razor serves the diagnostician well, but when the actual problem is complex or unexpected, patients can be sent down expensive and even life-threatening diagnostic rabbit holes.
A friend of mine is an 80-pack-a-year smoker. He was complaining of shortness of breath, worsening over a couple of months, and his primary care physician sent him to a pulmonologist. The assumption was that the shortness of breath was related to COPD from his chronic smoking — and that indeed would have been the most likely explanation. Read more »
June 13th, 2010 by Berci in Better Health Network, Health Tips
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Here’s Buzzy, a reusable pain relief device developed by a pediatrician. It works based on the gate control theory of pain:
Buzzy is a newly developed reusable pain relief device that children can bring to the doctor’s office with them to help dull the pain of shots! As the brainchild of Pediatrician Amy Baxter, Buzzy rapidly reduces pain when pressed onto the skin. Buzzy is especially helpful for children who receive shots often, like those suffering from diabetes. Buzzy can also be used for the small things, like taking splinters out! Not only is Buzzy a kid-favorite, but it’s safe, effective immediately on contact, FDA compliant, and environmentally friendly, too.
*This blog post was originally published at ScienceRoll*
June 12th, 2010 by John Mandrola, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Tips, Opinion, True Stories
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Life sometimes gets in the way of daily posting. Specifically, the treadmill of life sometimes roars too fast.
But as I strolled through the hospital this morning, there was a plain piece of white paper taped to the wall around the nurses station. Although I’m not overly religious (and even highly conflicted about which rituals are the right ones), these words from a pastor/celebrity stopped me for a moment:
Attitude
The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a company, a church, or a home. The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change the past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is plan on the one thing that we have, and that is our attitude.
I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.
As a cardiologist programmed to “alert” most of the time, words such as these help me. I haven’t seen the studies yet, but I’m guessing that positive attitudes reduce inflammation, which is good for our atria, and our arteries.
JMM
*This blog post was originally published at Dr John M*
June 12th, 2010 by GruntDoc in Better Health Network, True Stories
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Recently I was seeing a patient who was left with somewhat of a stutter after a prior stroke. It was a long history and probably longer for the patient, who had to work very hard to be understood through an unwanted speech impediment.
Inexplicably, when I walked out of the room I started to stutter, too — I wasn’t trying to make light of the patient’s problem, and I had to stop talking for a few moments before I could speak in my normal cadence. It was super-strange, like my brain heard the new cadence and said “Oh, that’s how you do it.” Awful.
It was embarrassing and weird. Fortunately the patient didn’t hear it, and I apologized to the staff who did. I have no idea why my mouth-brain connection picked that anomaly to repeat. Strange.
Anyone else have this?
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
