EMTLife Vitals Hall of Fame

[JPINFV]

What's the highest vital or lab values you've seen?

I once had a CCT where the patient walked into the ED with a BGL of 1500.

Recently admitted a patient with a BNP of 66,000.

 

[Tigger]

Maybe not quite a lab value but I did a psych hold for a man that ingested 176 pills in a suicide attempt.

 

[Achilles]

Had a PT come in back when I did clinicals with a BP of 245/120

Also had a Psych pt that had two fetaynol patches on his back and tried to eat one

 

[saskvolunteer]

Had a DKA patient come in via EMS into ER. Unresponsive. pH was 39.7. Intubated and ICU bound.

 

[usalsfyre]

Had a PT come in back when I did clinicals with a BP of 245/120

Also had a Psych pt that had two fetaynol patches on his back and tried to eat one

300/220 secondary to cocaine overdose.

BGL of 1860.

Troponin of 106 (yes 106 not 1.06)

K+ 8.6, hemodialysis pt wondering why she had to go to the ED

ETCO2 of 126 (never did find out what the gas was), end stage CF patient who was "a little more drowsy than normal".

 

[JPINFV]

Had a DKA patient come in via EMS into ER. Unresponsive. pH was 39.7. Intubated and ICU bound.

3.97 maybe? I hope someone repeated that ABG because it seems too low to be compatible with life. That's about the same pH as tomato juice, and normal is 7.35 to 7.45.

 

[usalsfyre]

3.97 maybe? I hope someone repeated that ABG because it seems too low to be compatible with life. That's about the same pH as tomato juice, and normal is 7.35 to 7.45.

Yeah, the lowest I've heard of that still had a pulse (for a short time anyway) was 6.8 something.

 

[Anjel]

Bp 264/126
Blood glucose of "high" which was 1200in the ER.
Blood alcohol .40

 

[d0nk3yk0n9]

One of my friends (not a patient) once blew a BAC of .48. Thankfully I wasn't there that night.

 

[Aidey]

Blood glucose of 1707mg/dl - Sepsis patient with MODS, no hx of diabetes.

K+ of 9.2 - ESRD patient who was on the fence about dialysis. Had been running in the 7-8 range for the previous month or two.

EtCO2 of 7 - Conscious, alert, DKA patient.

 

[bigbaldguy]

Umm I had a patient who was really out of breath once

 

[EpiEMS]

Maybe not quite a lab value but I did a psych hold for a man that ingested 176 pills in a suicide attempt.

Beat my pt's record (120 1mg tabs of clonazepam)...dang!

 

[Dwindlin]

Acute HIV Syndrome Patient:

Hbg: 3 g/dL
WBC: 1 cell/mL (no, not 1000)
Plt: 0

Talking to us in ED, died shortly after making it to the unit.

 

[FLdoc2011]

Routinely see blood alcohol levels in 400-500's.

Acute pancreatitis patient with triglycerides >5000.

Pt with leukostasis and blast crisis with WBCs over 90,000.

 

[adamjh3]

Just this past weekend I got a SL temperature of "Hi" on a thermometer that reads up to 106*F

 

[saskvolunteer]

3.97 maybe? I hope someone repeated that ABG because it seems too low to be compatible with life. That's about the same pH as tomato juice, and normal is 7.35 to 7.45.

Nope. I'm quite positive it was 39.7. None of us had ever seen. ABG was repeated by the RTs twice. He died shortly after.

 

[STXmedic]

Nope. I'm quite positive it was 39.7. None of us had ever seen. ABG was repeated by the RTs twice. He died shortly after.

That's not possible. pH is measured on a scale of 0 to 14. It does not go higher than that.

 

[Aidey]

Hang on a second, I thought the pH scale only went from 1-14?

 

[Epi-do]

Had a pt with a head injury that we couldn't get a BP on, because even taking the cuff up to 300, you immediately heard the beats as soon as you started deflating the cuff. The ER thought we were full of crap when we told them his pressure was 300+ systolic, until they did it themselves and got the same results.

 

[bahnrokt]

Maybe not quite a lab value but I did a psych hold for a man that ingested 176 pills in a suicide attempt.

I've got that beat if your willing to count the pills he fished out of the porto potty and shoved into his anal cavity.

Was at a 3 day concert and security had been tossing confiscated drugs into the porto potty thinking nobody would ever be tempted to do mystery pills out of a public toilet. They were wrong.