Post by Lynxie on Nov 20, 2010 21:52:59 GMT -5
None of these are super important, but I did learn some really nifty medical facts in my EMT class (just finished - took my national exam this week and passed!). Here are some of them.
- Did you know that everyone dies of the same, exact thing? Doesn't matter if you die of old age, or cancer, or a car wreck. Everyone dies of irreversible shock. Basically what happens is, as your body deteriorates, it goes into something called compensated shock. This is your body speeding up its processes in an attempted to compensate for the damage that has been done. Your pulse rises, your blood pressure rises, and you breathe faster. As time goes on, the "damage" starts to catch up, and it eventually gets ahead of your body's attempt to compensate. This is called decompensated shock. The first sign of it is your systolic blood pressure (the top number) dropping below 100. If this continues, your body will eventually go into irreversible shock, and then there is nothing that even the most advanced doctor can do to save your life.
- When someone has a history of chest pain, or "Angina Pectoris" (basically that chest pain you get when you run really really hard - its your heart muscles not getting enough oxygen), they are sometimes given nitroglycerin to treat it. We are allowed to assist patients with taking their perscribed nitroglycerin. The weird thing about it though, is that we have to be super careful giving it to them, because it is so readily absorbed by the body that even touching the little pill can cause the medication to be absorbed into your skin, and then you're down for the count, because while nitro won't harm you if you don't need it, one of its side effects is intense migranes.
- The little nub at the end of your sternum is called the Xiphoid Process. (pronounced zie-foid)
- When giving supplemental oxygen, a nasal cannula (pic) set at 6 liters of oxygen a minute can deliver up to 44% oxygen (normal air has 20%). A nonrebreather (pic) set at 15 liters a minute can deliver up to 80% oxygen. Artificial ventilations with a bag valve mask (pic) connected to oxygen set to 15 liters a minute can deliver 100% oxygen to the patient.
- Under extreme circimstances, an EMT-B in KY and IN can insert an artifical airway, called a dual lumen airway device, or combitube. This type of tube is known as a blind airway, because you can place it, and it'll work if its in the trachea or the esophagus.
The little bulb on top is called the esophageal lumen, and the little white thing on the bottom is the tracheal lumen. If the patient is unresponsive and not breathing (apneic), you can use this device to ensure an open, easy to ventilate airway. The tip of it is lubed, and then it is slid down until the teeth are between the two black lines near the top. Then the two lumens are inflated (85-100cc of air in the esophageal, and 10-12cc of air in the tracheal), and then you ventilate in either the blue tube or the clear one, mattering on if the tube went into the trachea or the esophagus.
The only part about this that really sucks is that you only have about 30 seconds from the time you stop artificial ventilations to get the combitube inserted and to restart ventilations.
- Did you know that everyone dies of the same, exact thing? Doesn't matter if you die of old age, or cancer, or a car wreck. Everyone dies of irreversible shock. Basically what happens is, as your body deteriorates, it goes into something called compensated shock. This is your body speeding up its processes in an attempted to compensate for the damage that has been done. Your pulse rises, your blood pressure rises, and you breathe faster. As time goes on, the "damage" starts to catch up, and it eventually gets ahead of your body's attempt to compensate. This is called decompensated shock. The first sign of it is your systolic blood pressure (the top number) dropping below 100. If this continues, your body will eventually go into irreversible shock, and then there is nothing that even the most advanced doctor can do to save your life.
- When someone has a history of chest pain, or "Angina Pectoris" (basically that chest pain you get when you run really really hard - its your heart muscles not getting enough oxygen), they are sometimes given nitroglycerin to treat it. We are allowed to assist patients with taking their perscribed nitroglycerin. The weird thing about it though, is that we have to be super careful giving it to them, because it is so readily absorbed by the body that even touching the little pill can cause the medication to be absorbed into your skin, and then you're down for the count, because while nitro won't harm you if you don't need it, one of its side effects is intense migranes.
- The little nub at the end of your sternum is called the Xiphoid Process. (pronounced zie-foid)
- When giving supplemental oxygen, a nasal cannula (pic) set at 6 liters of oxygen a minute can deliver up to 44% oxygen (normal air has 20%). A nonrebreather (pic) set at 15 liters a minute can deliver up to 80% oxygen. Artificial ventilations with a bag valve mask (pic) connected to oxygen set to 15 liters a minute can deliver 100% oxygen to the patient.
- Under extreme circimstances, an EMT-B in KY and IN can insert an artifical airway, called a dual lumen airway device, or combitube. This type of tube is known as a blind airway, because you can place it, and it'll work if its in the trachea or the esophagus.
The little bulb on top is called the esophageal lumen, and the little white thing on the bottom is the tracheal lumen. If the patient is unresponsive and not breathing (apneic), you can use this device to ensure an open, easy to ventilate airway. The tip of it is lubed, and then it is slid down until the teeth are between the two black lines near the top. Then the two lumens are inflated (85-100cc of air in the esophageal, and 10-12cc of air in the tracheal), and then you ventilate in either the blue tube or the clear one, mattering on if the tube went into the trachea or the esophagus.
The only part about this that really sucks is that you only have about 30 seconds from the time you stop artificial ventilations to get the combitube inserted and to restart ventilations.