A 67yr old male with multiple comorbidities is brought by ambulance with a 3-day history of diffuse abdominal pain. The history is vague and the differential of his symptoms remains very broad. He develops significantly worsening pain and hypotension and becomes obtunded. As the patient’s condition deteriorates, the team must initiate management of abdominal pain plus shock and support the hemodynamics with vasopressors/inotropes. The team will need to intubate to facilitate advanced imaging and definitive care.
Tag: resuscitation
Beta Blocker Toxicity
A 44-year-old male presents to the emergency department following the ingestion of an entire bottle of metoprolol. Decontamination strategies should be utilized alongside consultation with poison control. Patient clinically deteriorates as the drug reaches peak effects, requiring IV fluids, atropine, calcium, glucagon, multi-dose vasopressors, high dose insulin, and a discussion around potential salvage therapies.
Agitation and Aortic Dissection
A 53 year old male with untreated hypertension presents with a history of vomiting, back pain and acute agitation. Once he is sedated, assessment will reveal an acute aortic dissection. He will require prompt treatment, intubation and disposition planning.
Local Anesthetic Systemic Toxicity
A femoral nerve block has just been performed on a 65-year-old male who sustained a right femoral neck fracture. The patient also sustained a laceration to the scalp which was repaired by the medical student. The patient is now complaining of blurry vision, paresthesias, and “twitchiness”. The patient progresses on to seizure followed by cardiac arrest and will need high quality ACLS care along with lipid emulsion therapy.
COVID-19: Respiratory Failure
This case was designed during the January 2020 COVID-19 outbreak in order to assess and improve team preparedness for safely and effectively caring for a critically ill coronavirus patient from triage through to intubation.
Nightmares Case 1: Bradycardia
This is a case of an elderly patient with syncope. He is found to be in third degree heart block. The team is expected to perform an initial assessment and obtain an ECG. Upon recognizing the heart block, they should ensure IV access and place pacer pads while calling for help.
Stab Wound to the Neck with Neurogenic Shock
A 21 year old male is brought to your tertiary care ED by EMS after being stabbed by a friend. EMS initiated spinal precautions and failed several attempts to intubate en route. On arrival, the patient is being bagged and has a single stab wound to the right posterolateral neck. He requires emergent intubation for airway protection. After intubation, his blood pressure drops but his heart rate remains in the 70s. His blood pressure will stabilize only after appropriate fluid resuscitation and vasopressor initiation.
