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Well, I had one of those famous 2 AM CRI's (cranial-rectal inversion) last night.
Called out to 66yoM C/C chest pain. Pt. described pain as a weight on his chest that woke him up out of deep sleep. Pt also stated that he had visited his doctor earilier that day for an EKG and was to schedule a follow-up with a cardiologist next week.
Pt was CAOx4, Skin PWD, Lungs clear & equal bilat, Bradycardic (mid 30's), respirs 12, BP 132/68, pain 1/10. We throw him on some O2 and the monitor which was showing an abnormal rythm (later ID'd as 3rd degree block) and call for ALS.
As a basic, we are allowed to give 162mg ASA PO for crushing chest pain associated with light headedness. I go to get the baby aspirin and look at the bottle. I confuse the quantity of pills (36) as the dosage (actually 81mg) and give the patient 4 baby aspirin for a total dose of 324mg.
I didn't find this out until we had returned to the station and were talking about the call when someone mentioned that our aspirin was 81mg. I went back and looked at the bottle, and found they were correct so I had to go back and amend my run report to include my screw-up.
It taught me a valuable lesson - Triple check the dosage!
Called out to 66yoM C/C chest pain. Pt. described pain as a weight on his chest that woke him up out of deep sleep. Pt also stated that he had visited his doctor earilier that day for an EKG and was to schedule a follow-up with a cardiologist next week.
Pt was CAOx4, Skin PWD, Lungs clear & equal bilat, Bradycardic (mid 30's), respirs 12, BP 132/68, pain 1/10. We throw him on some O2 and the monitor which was showing an abnormal rythm (later ID'd as 3rd degree block) and call for ALS.
As a basic, we are allowed to give 162mg ASA PO for crushing chest pain associated with light headedness. I go to get the baby aspirin and look at the bottle. I confuse the quantity of pills (36) as the dosage (actually 81mg) and give the patient 4 baby aspirin for a total dose of 324mg.
I didn't find this out until we had returned to the station and were talking about the call when someone mentioned that our aspirin was 81mg. I went back and looked at the bottle, and found they were correct so I had to go back and amend my run report to include my screw-up.
It taught me a valuable lesson - Triple check the dosage!
