Questions and Answers Obstetrical and Gynecologic Emergencies 1 What are the typical expected physiologic/anatomic changes in pregnancy? A number of changes occur. Average weight gain is 25–35 lbs (11.5–16 kg). Most weight gain is from the enlarged uterus/fetus, blood volume, breast…
Questions and Answers 1 What is sepsis and why is it important? Describing sepsis, Sir William Osler wrote: “Except on few occasions, the patient appears to die from the body’s response to infection rather than from (the infection itself).” Simply…
Questions and Answers Case: A neighbor calls 911 for someone continuously pounding trying to enter the apartment next door. They are worried that the person knocking is high on drugs. Police arrive to a confused male in his 20s and…
Questions and answers 1 What elements of history are helpful to elicit from a patient with abdominal pain? Establish the location, severity, duration, and a description of the pain. Any associated symptoms, such as fevers, vomiting, diarrhea, dysuria, hematuria, or…
Questions and answers Case: You arrive on scene to find a 69-year-old female with a past medical history of atrial fibrillation, hypertension, and heart failure and an implantable defibrillator with a pacemaker. She called because her defibrillator shocked her. 1…
Chest Pain 1 Name some life-threatening causes of chest pain. Chest pain can be due to a variety of causes. In the prehospital setting, it is always important to consider some of the more life-threatening etiologies to chest pain. Listed…
Questions and Answers 1 What is an EKG? An electrocardiogram (EKG/ECG) is a graphic recording of electrical potentials produced by the cardiac tissue and measured by electrodes placed at different sites on the body. 2 How does electrical activity travel…
Questions and Answers 1 What does altered mental status mean? Altered mental status is a disorder of consciousness; disorders of consciousness are divided into issues of arousal, thought content, or some combination of both. Dementia is more progressive in nature.…
Questions and Answers 1 What is hypotension? Decreased blood pressure relative to a person’s baseline blood pressure. Hypotension is a systolic blood pressure less than 90 mm Hg or a mean arterial pressure of less than 60 mm Hg for a duration…
Questions and Answers 1 You arrive on the scene at a local restaurant to find a 65-year-old gentleman who reportedly had a witnessed cardiac arrest. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was started by bystanders. How common is out-of-hospital cardiac arrest? 350,000 patients…