more than man-flu…
The case: 19 year old male who presented as ‘lethargic & generally unwell’ is wheeled into resus. He is so weak it takes 2 staff and his father to lift him from the wheelchair to our stretcher. He looks horrible.…
Month September 2012
observing the occult…
The case: A motorcyclist is minding his own business, stationary at a set of lights and is rear-ended by a car at ~60-70km He is thrown 10 meters or so from his bike and lands on his left side. Remarkably…
supply & demand…
Case: 74 year old female is placed in the acute-area of our ED with a complaint of retrosternal chest tightness at approximately 9am. Her symptoms sound very typical for ACS. She looks clammy and pale. My colleague has placed her…
a tonne of bricks…
… well it wasn’t really a tonne; more like a dozen or so individual bricks falling from a height of 3-4 metres that peppered and glanced a patient I saw 48 hours ago. Whilst he presented as a ‘trauma’ and…
just a tablespoon…
This is the story of a 59 year old man who presented to our ED with a complaint of haemoptysis. He is otherwise well, takes no regular medications and besides his ’50 per day’ smoking history (over 40-odd years) he…
The audacity of FOAMed
Mike Cadogan raising a glass to the audacity of FOAMed. Image created by underneathEM.com author Domhnall Brannigan (after Shepard Fairey and commissioned by Chris Nickson). Mike has just written an explanatory piece on the birth of FOAMed on LITFL.com here.
broad, fast & regular…
There are some things in medicine that I feel require a standardized approach for rapid diagnosis & management, especially in the face of an unstable patient & you have a little sweat on your brow. The following are two somewhat…
R&R In The FASTLANE 027
Research and Reviews (R&R) in the FastLane: experts worldwide tell us what they think is worth reading from emergency medicine and critical care literature
Three hospitals in parallel dimensions
There exist three hospitals in parallel dimensions. This may be the root of all service delivery problems in public healthcare systems, including the spectre of access block. A bold statement, I know, but read on… The idea of three parallel…
first time wheezer…
I have recently heard the quote, “the eyes do not see what the mind does not know” & feel it is incredibly applicable to this particular case, which some of you may have seen recently in one of my Tweets.…
Noninvasive Ventilation and the critically ill
LITFL puts you to the test, with 10 of the best Questions and Answer from this months EM Critical Care Article on Noninvasive Ventilation.
LITFL in perpetuity
You may have noticed a little purple box appearing in the right sidebar - this is the Pandora search box. We are honoured to announce that Life in the Fast Lane is now being archived by the National Library of Australia (NLA)