Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Chief Complaint of the Night Returns

Ugh. I don't know if it's just me, but whenever I look up at our tracker to see someone under ten years old with chief complaint of chest pain I pretty much always want to blow my brains out. So, no different last night- this lady brings her 4 year old in for chest pain, I open the door and the kid skips to the scale and then skips over to the triage booth, so the pain is obviously pretty bad.
So, I start asking the parent what's wrong and she starts telling me that she wanted the kid checked out immediately because at home earlier, the kid walked up to her and told her his heart stopped. The kid then repeats the statement to me and smiles and then starts talking about some other random shit like 4 year olds like to do.
"Did he look like this when he said that?", I asked her. Yup. He didn't have any complaints of pain, he wasn't grimacing, he didn't appear to be struggling to breathe, no crying, didn't seem distressed? No cardiac history or medical problems? Nope. Just walked up to her, said his heart stopped, went back to watching Yo Gabba Gabba or whatever else kids do. She felt it was an emergency because he vomited once two weeks before. Really.
Some days, I really don't know what to say.
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12 comments:

  1. rnraquelJuly 27, 2011 at 6:58 AM

    OMG

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  2. AnonymousJuly 27, 2011 at 9:18 AM

    I hope the health insurance company is notified of this. It's silly claims like this which contribute to everyone's increased premiums and/or higher costs for Medicaid or other public health insurance.

    On another note, would it be possible (and are you amenable) to brightening up the background color here? On the off chance that I am not the only one, I thought I'd let you know that it is a tiny bit difficult to read as is.

    I really enjoy reading here. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. OldSquidJuly 27, 2011 at 9:42 AM

    Wonder what nurse K's Dr. Big Work Up would do. Cardiac echo?

    ReplyDelete
  4. LJuly 27, 2011 at 10:44 AM

    Well I hope you went ahead and worked him up under a cardiac protocol. This could be The Big One, and god forbid you miss that.

    ReplyDelete
  5. terri cJuly 27, 2011 at 12:22 PM

    Yes, I hope Nurse K will describe the patented Dr Big Workup pediatric cards protocol!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. hoodnurseJuly 27, 2011 at 4:03 PM

    @Anonymous- hahaha health insurance. No. Visits like this are generally self pay (don't pay). Yeah, I need to do a blog revamp around this place anyway, it's just getting off my butt and doing it.
    They left before getting any orders but I DID NOT initiate and EKG at triage.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousJuly 27, 2011 at 7:31 PM

    Am I going to be a terrible parent because this kind of nonsense would never even occur to me?

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousJuly 28, 2011 at 2:23 PM

    LOVE the black on grey!!!!

    Usually I have to cut and paste entries into Word so I can read them. The ever-popular light-on-dark theme is absolute murder in my eyeballs.

    THANK YOU SO MUCH for changing it.

    ReplyDelete
  9. hoodnurseJuly 28, 2011 at 9:02 PM

    You must have some funky computer issues going on, because I haven't done anything, I thought you meant the black on grey was hard to read. Oh. Well, in that case I'll do nothing, my specialty. Plus, I really like grey.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousJuly 29, 2011 at 11:33 AM

    The second anonymous was not the same person as the first. I still would like the background to be lighter.

    Perhaps a vote from your readers? If I am the only one with the complaint, then no need to change it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. LivingDeadNurseJuly 30, 2011 at 9:29 PM

    i love the parents that bring the kid in that has a 99.1 temp and has thrown up once. Which means if doctor dumb ass is working there will be an IV stick and a cath for the 3 yr old. People its called Tylenol and pedilyte. Don't come to the ER and bitch that your kid got and IV stick

    ReplyDelete
  12. arzt4empfaengerAugust 9, 2011 at 12:44 AM

    There are days where words are appropriate, and other days it's time for the imaginary baseball bat (and imaginarily spanking the offending patient/caretaker with it).

    ReplyDelete

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