Posts in Critical Care
Pediatric Submersions

The overhead announcement goes off: “Team B to the trauma room”. The report: EMS is bringing a 2-year-old female that was found unresponsive in the family swimming pool by her mother after being alerted by an older sibling. Unknown downtime. The patient is being bagged by bag-valve mask (BVM) and has slow, but palpable, femoral pulses, she is unresponsive, ETA 2 minutes…

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Fire-related Injuries in Children

“EMS called with a pediatric code in progress from a house fire, approximately 5 minutes out. A 2-year-old female with unknown past medical history was brought in with CPR in progress. History was limited as there was no family with the patient. Per EMS, firefighters were called to scene of a house fire and the patient and her sister were found in an upstairs bedroom, both unresponsive and pulseless…”

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Hypothermic Cardiac Arrest

An unknown age male, estimated 30 years old, is brought into the emergency department by emergency medical services in cardiac arrest. He was found unresponsive on a park bench outside on a cold night. When EMS arrived he was noted to be very cold with no palpable pulse, spontaneous respirations, or response to sternal rub. A supraglottic airway was placed but they were unable to establish IV access. They performed 30 minutes of chest compressions and brought him to the emergency department on a LUCAS device…

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