stethescope

Category Archives: Emergency and Triage

Watching a patient die

credit: roujo
Today I watched a man die. A few of us stood around as his heart stopped beating, and did nothing about it. It was kind of surreal, but the mood in the room was quite calm - there was no frenzy of activity with buzzers going off and people running: instead there [...]

Is it really an emergency?

photo credit: viva la vibs
There has been a lot written on emergency departments and the frequency of patients who attend for frivolous and stupid complaints. Certainly this has become a part of my day to day life, and there have been many times when I have wished that the Australasian Triage Score system [...]

Parents and newborns at triage

I’m a parent, I’ve been one a couple times over now!  And, I can appreciate it’s not always easy being a parent.

credit: ElvisHuang
Some parents bring their kids into emergency for such minor reasons though, its hard not to raise your eyebrows and think “errr…. and why are you here!?”
Some classic examples are: