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Friday, July 4, 2008

SOB, Not Really

We got toned out for a patient having difficulty breathing. We heard the address and it was one with which we are familiar. There is a couple living there with multiple medical problems so we get called there fairly often. When we got there we found our patient (the husband this time) sitting on the couch. We asked him what was going on and he stated that he had a terrible headache. How a 911 dispatcher got shortness of breath out of a headache I'll never understand. Our patient also told us that he was weaker than normal and that he was having some difficulties getting into his wheel chair. Eric performed a good assessment on the man and everything seemed to be normal other than the splitting headache. Before I was ready to send him to the hospital BLS I wanted to check his sugar. It came back at 49 (it should be 80-100 in healthy adults). Just like that the call turned ALS. About this time MBA showed up with a paramedic intern. I let her start the line and give the patient some sugar. Just before we loaded him up we checked his sugar again and it was 240. I know it may seem high but because we're putting glucose (simple sugar) right into the veins it drops quickly. He may be adding diabetes to his list of medical problems.

3 comments:

Katie said...

'Shortness of breath' was not what I thought this story was about when I first read the title. :o

Sea Foam Bald said...

I thought it was a good pun....

Firefighter/Paramedic said...

I can't help it if some of my readers have dirty minds.

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