a poison puzzler…
the case. 23 year old female is bought to ED by her family after an intentional overdose of ~ 100 ‘diet tablets’ which she ingested 1.5-2 hours earlier.
Category Medical Specialty
The Hypocritic Corpus
As I stand over this: Screaming human? Patchwork Scarred Scared Amphetamine fuelled Pulsing rage, With a syringe of midazolam -fantazaslam! Invoking the Mental Health Act, As if I believe in it -The gospel according to psychiatry I realise this does…
iatrogenic acceleration…
The Case. A 46 year old restrained passenger in a high-speed MVA rolls into the resus bay. She is intubated & sedated [easily ventilated & oxygenated, no evidence of chest trauma], persistently tachycardic @ 160/min with a systolic BP of…
shades of grey…
Add your thoughts here… (optional)
a troublesome tachycardia
The Case. An 11 year old boy is bought to ED by his mother on a busy weekday evening. Mum reports that he has been ‘a little bit off’ over the past 24 hours, in particular he’s not keeping down…
big black spider…
The Case. A sunny Saturday morning in Sydney and your 56 year old patient was just outside doing some gardening when they feel a rather sharp bite on their right hand (on webspace between thumb and index finger). He arrives…
slowly, slowly…
Case: 76 year old female, presents with lightheadedness and lethargy. She is complaining of mid-scapular pain & is syncopal at triage. She has cold hands & clammy skin. Systolic BP 70 mmHg. Crackles to mid-zones of her chest. Distended JVP.…
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…
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…
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…
Fingertip Injury
A guide to the assessment and management of common finger tip injuries in the emergency department.