Question for ya!

J

justinsds

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What's up?! My name is Justin, I'm currently training to become a EMT-B here in Indy. Today I did my first ER clinical for class and what a BLAST! I don't know why I didn't do this years ago!

But I have a question and I don't know if I learned this in class or not but I do not recall. My first patient complained of chest pain and told us he was chowing down on Tums and slammin' Maalox all day. He was fine one minute then was dead! We walked out of the room for MAYBE 30 seconds and someone started yelling, "He passed out!". We walk back in and he went into cardiac arrest. I started chest compressions and we did what we needed but he died. But my question is... why did so much blood come out of his nose and mouth? I didn't think anything of it until AFTER my shift was done.

Thanks!
 
Was the patient an alcoholic or have a history of pulmonary or liver problems? Blood isn't supposed to come out through the mouth, even during a cardiac arrest.
 
where was he when the Pt passed out? he may have smacked his face on something on the way down if he were standing or sitting up. Pt may have bitten his tongue out of pain also...
 
He may have had a perferated ulcer in his stomach, in which the tums would have increaced the amount of pressure, and then ruptured it.. causing bleeding in the stomach that could possibly be pusshed up with the chest compressions. If that happened then there is no way you would have known about it.

Although, I am not a doctor, thus I can only give you my own interpretations of this scenerio, Maybe one with more training can answer that fully and with more details then I can,,, or have a meeting with the ones involved to let things out, if it truly bothers you..

-- again, this is my own thoughts,, I encourage you to double check everything to make sure,, or meet with your suporvisor or instructor for clearification on the matter
 
katja said:
He may have had a perferated ulcer in his stomach, in which the tums would have increaced the amount of pressure, and then ruptured it.. causing bleeding in the stomach that could possibly be pusshed up with the chest compressions. If that happened then there is no way you would have known about it.

Although, I am not a doctor, thus I can only give you my own interpretations of this scenerio, Maybe one with more training can answer that fully and with more details then I can,,, or have a meeting with the ones involved to let things out, if it truly bothers you..

-- again, this is my own thoughts,, I encourage you to double check everything to make sure,, or meet with your suporvisor or instructor for clearification on the matter
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Even if it was an Ulcer that burst, it would be a mixture of Bloody Emesis (Vomit), not only blood

plus Compressions are done from Chest not Stomach so it would be really hard to "push" the stomach contents out

Its really hard to tell what happened with such little information, people dont usually bleed spontaniously from their Mouth and Nose during a Cardiac Arrest...

to the Original Poster... I hope you guys Suctioned his airway before starting CPR.....
 
MrBrown said:
So why did you leave the room?
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Why not? On an ER clinical you are expected to see more than one patient not be confined to one room.
 
If he had a history of alcohol abuse or liver problems, it could have been a ruptured esophageal varix.
 
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