Today the flavor of the day for EMS calls was what we call in Los Angeles county an EH. EH is the abbreviation used on the county run form to indicate a person that is having behavioral problems. It could be a psych patient or drunk, a nut or a depressed person.
Our first patient came the closest to being a real call. It was for an elderly woman with supposed shortness of breath. In reality she was more worried about where her husband was, how he was going to get to the hospital, who was going to lock the door, etc. These sound like legitimate concerns from an elderly person but when you are flat out panicky about them there are issues. I did hold her hand all the way to the ER and that seemed to make it all better.
Our second patient just wanted to get out of work so he hyperventilated causing his fingers to go all tingly (yes that is a medical term). Amazing how he felt better once he got away from work.
The last one was a whopper. He was a 34 year old male that showed up at a doctors office (not his) with lacerations all over his arms and head (problem #1). His systolic blood pressure was in the low 80's (problem #2). He admitted to us that he drank a 12 pack of beer (problem #3). Because of this and the head injury he was a little altered (he didn't know what month we were in) (problem #4). He was a diabetic that was not keeping track of his blood sugar and so when we checked it his sugar was almost 400 (problem #5). So it turns out he needed a little insulin, some stitches, some IV fluids, and AA to make him whole.
did you ever find out how he got the lacerations? cuz I think the story would be waaaay 'dope-r' if he was an alcoholic AND a cutter. I'm just sayin.
ReplyDeleteThe patient stated that he fell through a china cabinet. That's the best we got.
ReplyDelete