Foreign policy through the lens of an emergency physician

These seem unrelated, but give me a chance. I was eating outside at a restaurant with my 5 month old, Max, and a car with a modified muffler hit the gas right in front of us. In Australia, you’d call the driver a “hoon.” The noise terrified my boy, and I felt something I’m not used to: protective rage. When Max stopped crying my mind went to struggling families, kids, bombs, drones and suicide bombers, naturally. So I thought I’d type on medicine and foreign affairs. When you arrive in an ER with one-sided leg/arm/face paralysis, you’ll probably be whisked to a CT scanner to see whether or not you’ve had an ischemic vs. hemorrhagic stroke. For the former, this means that a blood clot is blocking flow to some part of your brain. For the latter, flow may be blocked, but there is also evidence of bleeding near the blockage. In the ischemic stroke case, you are a thrombolytic candidate, which is a type of medicine that dissolves clots. In the hemorrhagic stroke case, such a medicine can kill you. If you arrive in an ER with chest pain, you’ll very likely get an EKG. Certain findings on EKG are highly suggestive of heart attack, and will trigger a quick trip to a cath lab. If no nearby cath lab, then you may again be offered a thrombolytic to dissolve the clot to restore flow. Continue reading ... Your patients are rating you online: How to respond. Manage your online reputation: A social media guide. Find out how.
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Tags: Physician Emergency Source Type: blogs