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> I started to understand the realities of potential PTSD with a particular patient. When I was a resident, we admitted a guy whose ICD started firing while he
by JshWright 10y ago
> I started to understand the realities of potential PTSD with a particular patient. When I was a resident, we admitted a guy whose ICD started firing while he was feeling fine and mowing his lawn. He freaked out, stripped his shirt off and ran screaming up his neighborhood street until he found some help.
My _first_ priority (in the back of an ambulance) with someone who had an AICD fire is to get some significant sedation on board. I've seen multiple patients where the the anxiety of anticipating another discharge is amping up their SNS enough trigger their arrhythmia (triggering another shock).
- brianwawok 10y agoShould they have a Bluetooth connection to my phone to allow shutting off the stupid thing?
- JshWright 10y agoNo, for a variety of reasons... For starters, there _are_ ways to disable it externally, but they use a fairly specialized magnet. Secondly, even if they could shut it off, the patient isn't really in a position to know if it's shocking them for a legitimate reason or not. Shutting it off may simply shut their heart off... Finally, the security properties of Bluetooth aren't exactly up to the standards I would like to see for a "can deliver a fatal shock to someone's heart" type device.
- jrnichols 10y agoVersed is wonderful in that case. I got a little jolt when a patient knew hers was going to go off... so she grabbed my arm just before it happened. ZoT :/