This little old lady from Canada comes into the clinic, right before we close.
Her left arm feels "heavy", and she's been feeling dizzy and weak all day.
I tell her to go to the Emergency Room, ASAP.
She tells me to just check her blood pressure...it's 200/98!
She says, "Well, shit!" (Took the words right out of my mouth!)
She also tells me she's diabetic, which means that she might not necessarily have typical heart attack symptoms, even if she's having one.
I AGAIN tell her to go to the Emergency Room, ASAP.
Her response, "I'm flying home tonight, I don't have time to go to the Emergency Room."
Thankfully I was able to convince her that it MIGHT be a bad idea to get on a frickin' airplane if she's possibly having a heart attack, and I put her in a taxi to the nearest hospital.
I just don't get people.
5 comments:
Obgleich 200/98 hoch ist, es selbst setzt eine Dringlichkeit nicht fest. Jedoch, ihr Symptome gegeben, du fungiertest passend. Guter Job Sis!
Dein grosser Bruder
Danke, Grosser Bruder!
I know, I just didn't want to mess around. Heart attack or not, it is NOT a good idea to get on a plane in a situation like that.
Damn near stroked out in the waiting room.
That would have required a clean up on aisle 9.
I remember a guy that came in with tightness of chest, shortness of breath, and a prior family history of his father dying of cardiac arrest in his late thirties. I took him back to the cardiac room and hooked him up to the monitor, and paddles for good measure. I turned to get the physician when he went into V-fib. He was cardioverted after the second shock. If you are going to go into cardiac arrest, I can't think of a better place than in the ER with the paddles already hooked up!
Dein grosser Bruder
(Former ER nurse)
Dick - tell me about it, not to mention (callous of me, I know)that we were about three minutes from closing!
Don't forget that I have to make it to school on time, too!
Yeah, that IS callous of me...oh, well.
Mein grosser Bruder - you rock!!
You haven't shared nearly enough ER stories with me!
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