Elevation

I finally found a use for the PO ativan we carry. This lady was drenched with sweat, and I mean drenched, vomiting, crying, and had chest pain 10 out of 10. I believed it. She was really freaking out and with good reason. We threw all the nitro we had at her, and managed to get some nitro paste to stick to her. Even the diaphoretic EKG patches were falling off, but I finally managed to get a pretty good tracing.



(ST segment elevation MI, aka, heart attack on the old 12 lead.)

Yeah, pretty cool. When I saw that, I turned to the driver and said "We can get through this traffic a little faster." "Really?" he answered. I looked him in the eye and said. "Yes."

She was practically inconsolable so I gave her some PO ativan. That didn't work. She was nauseous and vomiting, so I gave her zofran. That didn't work. She was still freaking out and the pain was bad, so I gave her fentanyl. That didn't work. (We don't carry morphine due to a break in issue more than a year ago. Don't even get me started!) Her chest pain was terrible, I gave her more nitro. That didn't work. Basically the call became a minor cluster, which I enjoyed very much. (seriously)
Luckily, through all this her pressure was good, and her oxygen sats were good, so at least I didn't make her worse! Always a good thing.
It seemed to take us ages to get to the hospital. Why do these calls always go down during rush hour?!
I was happy to see everyone ready to receive us at the hospital and that they had believed my radio report. She was sent straight to the cath lab, where I will assume she had "a little work done" and will recover. Until I know otherwise, that's what I will believe.

Comments

Anonymous said…
What happened with the morphine?

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