Recently, the east coast had the storm of the century. By the way, if you ever live on a driveway, you should absolutely purchase a gas powered snow blower. It is one of the greatest inventions of all time and made my family's time in the snow a lot easier.
But one of my mother's patients had some complications during the storm.
Middle aged white male with a history of hypertension, hyper cholesterol, and was non compliant with medications. During the storm, the patient was shoveling the snow as most people were doing. After he had shoveled the snow, he experienced a sudden onset of severe upper back pain and had difficulty breathing.
He called 911 and they took him to the nearest ER. However, because of the storm the nearest ER was at capacity and they had to take him to the next nearest hospital. At the new hospital, the pt stated he was have severe back spasms but after examination, the doctors determined that he had an aortic aneuysm near the aortic arch and he needed to undergo urgent repair of his aorta. He underwent cardio thoracic surgery and his aorta was eventually repaired.
The luck came into the picture as if he had simply waited at the nearest ER, that facility was not equipped to handle a complicated procedure that the patient required. Thankfully, there were no complications and the patient fully recovered.
No comments:
Post a Comment