Young adult female presents BY AMBULANCE with a broken fingernail. (OK, I've broken a nail, and granted it was painful. But a little neosporin, a band aid and a couple of Tylenol and I suffered though it.) What kind of a person would think it is OK to call an ambulance for something so trivial? And before you ask, EMS in our area are not allowed to refuse to transport no matter how asinine the complaint.
3 am on a Tuesday and a thirtyish male comes in, WITH HIS MOTHER, to see if we can remove some warts. The ER doc showed the patient his name badge and asked him if he saw family medicine or dermatology written on it anywhere. While we found that quite funny I'm sorry to say that the patient and his mother didn't get it. (Males above 20 take note. You should now be old enough to do things without your mother.)
Friday night, the waiting room is packed and the wait times are approaching 6 hours. A mom brings in her six-year old who has been seen by his pediatrician that day and diagnosed with pneumonia. She wants a second opinion.
Foreign body in belly button. Diagnosis? Lint.
I could go on and on and probably will.........another day.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
Had one arrive via EMS with a broken artificial nail. I still don't get that or what the chick thought we could do about it. It's not like we keep acrylic powder and dremel drills in the ER.
But bellybutton lint? Oh. My. God.
How on earth do you do your job with a straight face??
Okay, the belly button lint has me stumped. I've never run across THAT one. : D
I'm reading this blog and remembering calling my doctor at 10pm because my one-year-old had a fluffy popcorn kernel in her ear that I couldn't budge. I asked him if I should take her to the emergency room. He said no, to just suck it out by reversing the vacuum cleaner....or I could just wait til morning when ear wax would push it out. Was he serious? About the vacuum cleaner, I mean? I waited til morning and sure enough, the kernel lay in the outer ear. I was so young and stupid. But...vacuum cleaner?
2 nights ago we had EMS call us report over the radio "25 y/o w/f cc today is going to be that of bronchitis. Onset 4 days ago. Vital signs: p72, r 16/u, bp 116/076. O2sat 100% on room air". I about died. Plus this was 500am. I just don't get people. My favorite one was this morning actually. A frequent flier came in via EMS with cc of needing to get to dialysis. WHAT??? Dialysis is across town from the hospital! We have a small hospital and only do emergency dialysis, not "oh hey, im here and need dialysis". He really thought we could transport him to the dialysis unit.
I'm a peds resident and we do time in our peds ER. Last year I had a kid brought in via EMS because he started screaming bloody murder while mom was giving him a bath. After going through all the questions (Was the water too hot/cold? Was he injured today/recently? Is he developmentally normal?), and after my child abuse antennae went way, way up, the kid was fine.
He just didn't want to take a bath.
(I couldn't have made it up if I tried.)
Last week, I had a 12 y/o boy brought in to the ED by his father for....
FOREHEAD ACNE.
I wish I was joking.
Here's a number of patients I have actually transported via ambulance to the hospital. All called 911, all demanded transport. We too are forbidden to refuse transport for any reason.
1. 2 day old bruise. No other pain or complaint. Bruise was to chin.
2. Ran out of food. Wanted something to eat. No other pain or complain.
3. Patient asking for "the lauded pills." Informed we do not carry "the lauded pills" nor do we hand out opiates without a compelling reason. Demanded transport.
4. Patient complaining of, "can't poop for the last two days." No other pain or complaint.
5. Non traumatic ankle pain. Good distal pulses. Able to ambulate without assistance, good balance. Can climb stairs without problems.
6. Needed a ride downtown. No cab fare. Had a cold malt liquor can in hand which cost more than a bus, but demanded a hospital visit. No other complaint. Refused all interventions.
7. Blood sugar was abnormal. Patient measured blood sugar every half hour for last 12 hours. Sugar was 138 three hours after a meal. "That's higher than what it should be." I asked what it should be. "Less than 138." No other pain or complaint.
8. Toothache for four days. No other pain or complaint. Rates pain at 4/10.
There are others, but they start to run together after a while.
Post a Comment