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Wednesday, August 15, 2012

OH NO

You know what sucks? When someone comes in - la dee dah dee dah - they are here for a legitimate probably, but it is not life threatening. So we go about our business with the usual labs, IV, blah blah blah. The person is not elderly. ALL OF A SUDDEN - SHIT!!!!!! CARDIAC ARREST. This perfectly normal person, with a legitimate problem is dead.

Rush to resus room
CPR continues
epi etc.
intubation

Get a rhythm back. They live. For the time being

central line
drips and more drips
hypothermia protocol
blah blah blah

Get a rhythm back. They live. For the time being.

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!!??? Who knows.

This is the worst scenario in the ER: the unexpected. The unexpected arrest. Coming out of no where. We are used to criticals that come in. We know about them ahead of time. We can prepare for them. Its when something suddenly happens that it sucks.

Fortunately, they were able to be brought back. What will the outcome be? I don't know. All I know is that they made it out of the ER. We did our job.
Hopefully they are still with us six months later.

1 comment:

ilovestargate said...

This happened to me last week...a patient was totally fine and then, BAM, suction set up, respiratory at bedside, central line, ACLS, etc. Not to mention this happened in the absolute smallest room in our ER. It's sad when it happens, especially when you've had the patient all day and they were talking about their kids and plans for the weekend :-\