I do, however, have a gross picture and an interesting EKG! Both of these come from patients brought in by the same long-time medic at American Medical Response in Bridgeport.
First, the EKG.
The patient was an elderly lady, brought in from an nursing home, with a low blood pressure, but not looking "shocky," or at least not yet. Although there was no chest pain or other obvious cardiac complaints, and no arrhythmias, the medic nonetheless (wisely) obtained a 12-lead.
Of course, shooting an EKG, like any other data point you obtain in the field, has been compared to picking your nose in public - namely, what do you do with the results?
So what would you do with this booger? Extra points if you find the occult STEMI.
The medic, correctly, did not call for cath lab activation.
Now the picture!
Same medic, bringing in a 80-ish year-old women who, because of dementia and multiple strokes, has had her diet restricted to pureed & thickened foods. Unfortunately, her husband, while preparing dinner, turned his back for just a moment while preparing himself a meal. When he turned back she wasn't breathing so well, and was starting to look a little blue-ish.
 |
| Not quite this bad. |
The paramedic, not sure if we fully appreciated what had happened, held aloft with his MacGill forceps the spoils of the hunt:
Gross.
Nonetheless, a nice save! I have no idea how this lady managed to stuff a piece of meat that size into her mouth, let alone get it down into her epiglottal zone. Definitely a case that required on-scene, definitive, airway management.
Okay, that's it - no deep topics today.
But the next post will be more "meaty," I promise.
