New Blog

Continue the adventure at:
caldreamsquirrel.blogspot.com

22 November 2009

Bang Your Head

Ok, so it's been a while.... Funny how some shifts just seem to have a theme.  Last night I found out all the different ways that someone could suffer a head injury.  It made for an eventful but tedious shift, and also kept the CT scanner burning away.  I think we all had radiation exposure since 80 percent of the patients that came in from 11 p.m. onward needed a head and face CT.
There was:
 - drunk, fell down and smashed head on concrete 
 - drunk, tripped and fell down hitting face forward on concrete
 - drunk, minding own business, and got whacked on head with metal pipe
 - drunk, minding own business, and got slammed on head with baseball bat
 - drunk, jumped into middle of fight and got hit on head and face with beer bottles
 - doing cocaine and got hit by several people's fists across the face
 - got drunk, drove without a seatbelt, crashed into several cars, jumped out and ran for about a mile from police that were chasing them, then needed an ambulance for a minor injury and ended up unresponsive with a breathing tube in the E.D.


and then there was the:

 - out with family and suddenly collapsed.  This patient had a massive brain bleed and ended up dying in the emergency room before the end of my shift.  They most likely had a brain aneurysm that ruptured and that was it.


The rest of the patients I had ended up being everything from a cracked skull to facial bruising, and I put the medical student to good use stapling and suturing all the various lacerations.  This, of course, kept me free to move onto ordering the next CT.



1 comment:

betty said...

the common thing for the first group were drunk or stoned; sad about the person with the suspected aneursym but at least it was relatively quick and they were with family beforehand

never a dull moment for sure

I have to say I'm doing acute care now for transcription instead of clinical work and it is fascinating and educational; my favorite reports to transcribe are the delivery notes or op reports for C-sections (I tear up at every single one when they report the baby delivered and I love the term "handed off to"). The saddest notes are the death summaries; truly a circle of life some days

I hope you have a nice Thanksgiving Veronica!!

any news where you will be settling?

betty