Sunday, September 25, 2011

The extreme satisfaction of catching an Inferior MI as it begins

Our ER went from easy flowing to full scale crazy in a half hours time.  Filling the rooms were patients of varying ages, and varying complaints.  Room 8 was not my patient but I noticed her being wheeled in by the tech from the waiting room.  Approx age looked to be mid 40's, she was not in any obvious acute distress but the board said her complaint was chest pain.  Her skin was pink and dry, she looked scared but otherwise normal.  I went about tending to my own patients which ranged from a child with a URI, an elderly woman with confusion and an elderly man with hip pain, post fall.  After a half hour of direct patient care, I came into the nursing station to chart and noticed room 8's monitor.  I wasnt sure what her initial ekg showed but she looked to be having elevation in lead 11 which was up in the nursing station.  Her nurse was busy, so I went in with the ekg machine and grabbed another one....acute inferior MI in all leads!!  Acting from there, our staff worked quickly to get another IV line, give her TNK as well as all the other drugs necessary (heparin etc.) and get her shipped to the cath lab within 40 min.  When I think about my job as an emergency room those stories are the ones that make me so proud to be a nurse in that setting! 

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