Posts in Critical Care
ED Approach to Anemia

A 57-year-old female presents to the emergency department with fatigue and weakness that have been worsening over a period of several months. She has a past medical history of chronic daily alcohol use, coagulation disorder with increased INR, and anxiety. She does not like to see physicians and has not been to her primary care doctor in several years, but decided to come in today because her fatigue and weakness have become too severe…

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Fall on Thinners: Management of Traumatic ICH in the ED

An 86-year-old female with past medical history of atrial fibrillation and coronary artery disease on apixaban and clopidogrel presents as a trauma activation after a mechanical fall from standing at her nursing facility. She does not remember the fall, but her nurse reports she tripped over her walker, fell and struck her head. She did not lose consciousness…

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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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