# Geriatric medical problem?  What could this have been?



## J B (Sep 7, 2013)

At an event as a civilian.  An 85yo female starts having some problems.  She sits down and is kind of heaving - almost looks like she's going to throw up each time, but she never does.  Skin is pale with patches of red (of course pale could be close to baseline for this person, though...).

911 is called, woman is kept sitting down.  After a few minutes, symptoms seem to begin going away.  Symptoms came on while she was standing around - she says she started feeling very warm at first.  She reported numbness in her hands and feet, though feeling was gradually coming back.  0/3 on stroke scale.

She is on a bunch of meds, and doesn't remember consuming anything other than a cup of coffee today.  This seems like the most likely culprit?  Just some weird body/med reaction resulting from over-exertion, not enough food, etc?  Also, she has been on her feet and been much more active today than is normal for her.

Medics arrive, put her in the ambulance and do some assessments.  They apparently don't find anything troubling, and let her go.


Having seen her a few minutes prior, I was surprised they didn't transport her.  She really looked like she was in a bad way for a few minutes, but by the time the ambulance got there I guess everything had pretty much cleared up and she was getting her color back.  

I regret not checking her pulse while the episode was taking place, but I didn't want to identify myself as an EMT because there really wouldn't be anything I could do aside from start CPR if necessary, and there was a big crowd who would be shouting "do something!" at me.


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## NBFFD2433 (Oct 13, 2013)

Sounds kind of like dehydration. But not sure.


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## Pkreilley (Oct 13, 2013)

What time of day was it? If she had only had a cup of coffee, on top of her medications then yeah, dehydration/lack of nutrition for the day causing syncopal episode.


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## ZombieEMT (Oct 14, 2013)

J B said:


> Medics arrive, put her in the ambulance and do some assessments.  They apparently don't find anything troubling, and let her go.
> 
> 
> Having seen her a few minutes prior, I was surprised they didn't transport her.




Why is it a surprise that they "let her go"? Was she under arrest? Normally when a patient is not transported, the patient has refused transport. I would rather an ambulance crew "let her go" than force her against her will. At least for me, I don't want kidnapping charges.


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