Socks and Saws

Patient complaint of the day: “My feet are cold.” We found her sitting on the floor outside of her apartment. How she got there was a bit of a mystery. Apparently she fell down in her apartment, and found it to be a good idea to crawl outside with a blanket, her purse, and her shoes. She ‘needed’ to go to the hospital so she could get her medical records. And her feet were cold. When she started moving she writhed in pain and exclaimed “My leg’s asleep!” Between us picking her up and putting her on a chair she made the greatest decision in the history of decisions and said she’d call a cab.

Then we had a call for cardiac problems. When we arrived, we found a lady looking totally fine sitting in a clinic. The doc took a 12 lead as part of a pre-op check up and found some changes indicative of a heart attack. They hadn’t done anything for her, and why? She was completely fine. Asymptomatic from the time she walked into the clinic to when we left her in the ER.

The best call of the day was for a laceration in the meat department of a local grocery store. As the patient put it, he had a fight with a saw, and the saw won. We had the tip of one finger in a bag (or was it a piece of pork?) and the others were down to the bone.

Also, a sick lady and two fender benders without injury.