This is bothering me

[HotelCo]

No but I'm confused because others were talking about putting them on, then taking them off. I was taught that we had to leave all equipment in place for the ME. And wouldn't the ME not like bits of skin missing from the corpse?

I really am curious, as I'm not going to be looking for paid work until after I'm out of medic school. I just tend to try to think through all eventualities (yes, yes, I know that's not possible) so I don't have to make things up on the fly when I'm out in the field.

Just unsnap them. You don't have to take the actual stickers off if your area doesn't want you to. In hospital, we take it all off unless it's IN the body (ET tube, IV/IO, etc...)

 

[Sasha]

Because it's pulseless...

And? PEA can be caused my a multitude of things, some are readily and easily treatable.

 

[Sasha]

No but I'm confused because others were talking about putting them on, then taking them off. I was taught that we had to leave all equipment in place for the ME. And wouldn't the ME not like bits of skin missing from the corpse?

They're stickies, not magnets. They're easy to pull or peel off, and they don't take bits of skin with them.

 

[Kookaburra]

Yeah, but out where I am the corpses are usually a week or so old. In my experience with roadkill skin gets gooey pretty fast, esp. if it's during the summer.

 

[Shishkabob]

And? PEA can be caused my a multitude of things, some are readily and easily treatable.

Still a crappy survival rate and it's STILL pulseless.

How are we arguing the badness or not having a heart beat?

 

[HotelCo]

Still a crappy survival rate and it's STILL pulseless.

How are we arguing the badness or not having a heart beat?

The big thing is what CAUSED the PEA. Cardiac Tamponade, Tension Pneumothorax, Severe Hypovolemia,... these are correctable causes of PEA.

How about a drug overdose? We can help out with that as well. Perhaps not always Pre-hospital...

 

[Sasha]

Still a crappy survival rate and it's STILL pulseless.

How are we arguing the badness or not having a heart beat?

so is vfib and pulselss vtach. are you just going to not work them because theyre as good as asystole? when in fact the fact you have electrical activity going on is a good start.

 

[Shishkabob]

I never said don't work on a pulseless rhythm, and never even insinuated so. I said it's still pretty crappy to have PEA.

Survival between asystole and PEA is not much different. That's all I was stating.

 

[HotelCo]

Survival between asystole and PEA is not much different. That's all I was stating.

Depending on what caused the PEA, this may not be the case. That's my point.
Don't assume that the patient won't make it just because they're in PEA (or in any rhythm, for that matter).

 

[simpatico]

Perhaps he's just suggesting that the survival rate is about the same in the broad spectrum of things. Obviously there are some "easy" PEA fixes as opposed to few easy asystole fixes. Don't think anyone was arguing against that though.