Thursday, July 26, 2007

Los Angeles County = Frustration

Today we had a patient at a dialysis clinic that had her heart rate shoot up pretty high. It was ranging between 148 and 162. Even though our patient had no real complaints at the time (and her vitals were all stable except her heart rate) we wanted to get her heart rate lowered. We got her on some oxygen and started an IV. We then had her try a vagal maneuver without success. I then made base contact and tried to get an order for Adenosine (a drug that can sort of reset the heart but it doesn't feel too good so I'm told) just in case the patient started to deteriorate during transport. They decided that if the patient starts to deteriorate during transport that we would have to recontact them for the order of Adenosine. I'm sure that is just what my partner would love to be doing right when the patient is talking a nose dive....call the hospital instead of treating the patient. In other counties (where they trust the paramedics) we would have gotten the order.

The best part is what the MD did as soon as we arrived at the ER. He gave her Adenosine! How frustrating.

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