Thanks
Last week, I got my first thank you card from a patient. It was really great to be thought of, and although I don't think we did anything above and beyond on the call, I did remember it. Most STEMIs are memorable.
The patient had chest pain, of course, and he had gone to his primary doctors office. The doc saw ST elevation and called 911 to take him in. This patient was virtually asymptomatic when I got there, but a quick glance at the 12 lead was all I needed. I read an article that said that the longer you stare at an EKG, the more anxiety it produces in the patient. In this case I didn't need to look long, and I'm sure my face gave it away anyway. So I did my own 12 lead and sent it to my general hospital while my partner got on the phone to the ER doc to 'get permission' to transport this patient to a hospital with a cath lab.
We were all packed up and ready to go while she was still on the phone with our ER doc who was hesitant to let us take this completely stable MI patient 20 minutes away. It is, of course, absolutely ludicrous to consider for one second to take this patient to our little hospital when a perfectly fine one is only 20 minutes away. After much hemming and hawing, we left for the fancy hospital.
Now, he was stable, but was a STEMI, so I asked my partner to get us through the traffic of the town. Until this point the patient had been a tough old cowboy who clearly hated the thought of any fuss being made over him. He had been stoic, moody, and to be fair, a bit impatient with us despite very little time lost with the whole consultation thing.
But, the second my partner hit the siren to get through an intersection, this stoic and cantankerous guy suddenly burst into tears and for a moment I was as surprised as he was, and for another horrible second, I thought he was faking.
I quickly explained the sirens and the other hospital and all that until he was comforted enough to stop. It really was an uneventful ride (as MIs go), and I was extremely gratified to find the cath team assembled, and everyone ready to receive our patient when we got there. In fact, the stars must have been aligned, as we transported him right to the cath table, and he was completely sorted out before we even got home.
The patient had chest pain, of course, and he had gone to his primary doctors office. The doc saw ST elevation and called 911 to take him in. This patient was virtually asymptomatic when I got there, but a quick glance at the 12 lead was all I needed. I read an article that said that the longer you stare at an EKG, the more anxiety it produces in the patient. In this case I didn't need to look long, and I'm sure my face gave it away anyway. So I did my own 12 lead and sent it to my general hospital while my partner got on the phone to the ER doc to 'get permission' to transport this patient to a hospital with a cath lab.
We were all packed up and ready to go while she was still on the phone with our ER doc who was hesitant to let us take this completely stable MI patient 20 minutes away. It is, of course, absolutely ludicrous to consider for one second to take this patient to our little hospital when a perfectly fine one is only 20 minutes away. After much hemming and hawing, we left for the fancy hospital.
Now, he was stable, but was a STEMI, so I asked my partner to get us through the traffic of the town. Until this point the patient had been a tough old cowboy who clearly hated the thought of any fuss being made over him. He had been stoic, moody, and to be fair, a bit impatient with us despite very little time lost with the whole consultation thing.
But, the second my partner hit the siren to get through an intersection, this stoic and cantankerous guy suddenly burst into tears and for a moment I was as surprised as he was, and for another horrible second, I thought he was faking.
I quickly explained the sirens and the other hospital and all that until he was comforted enough to stop. It really was an uneventful ride (as MIs go), and I was extremely gratified to find the cath team assembled, and everyone ready to receive our patient when we got there. In fact, the stars must have been aligned, as we transported him right to the cath table, and he was completely sorted out before we even got home.
Comments
-Pat