“The nurse read them again. This time, I wrote them down. Then I spent a minute studying them. She was afebrile, I noted. That was good. Her heart rated was 96, a high number I had no idea how to interpret. Her blood pressure was 152 over 84, another highish set of numbers that told me nothing. Her respiratory rate was 26 - also high, and vaguely disquieting. Her O2 sat - the oxygen content of her blood - was 92 percent: low, and in the context of that high respiratory rate not a good sign. The nurse was still looking at me. "I hear she's a whiner," I said hopefully. The nurse shrugged. "She asked me to call you.” DoctorCluelessPatientsPatient CareInternal MedicineIntern Book:Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories Source: Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories
“The story was an 82 year old guy with a broken neck. He had apparently fallen in his bathroom that morning, cracking his 1st and 2nd vertebrae. I had a vague memory from medical school that this wasn't a good thing--the expression "hangman's fracture" kept bobbing up from the well of facts I do not use --but I had a much more distinct impression that this was not a case for cardiology. "And Ortho isn't taking him because?" I said wearily. "Because he's got internal organs, dude." I sighed. "So why me?" "Because they got an EKG." The MAO was clearly enjoying himself. I remembered he had recently been accepted to a cardiology fellowship. I braced myself for the punch line. "And?" "And there's ectopy on it. Ectopy." He then made a noise intended to suggest a ghost haunting something.” MedicineCardsDoctorCardiologyInternal MedicineOrthopedicOrtho Book:Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories Source: Internal Medicine: A Doctor's Stories