An Inside Look at a Hospital Stay From Chest Pain

As a boy, soon after my mom would drop me off at Scranton (Pa.) fire headquarters to ride a shift on the ambulance with my dad, the bell would hit and the fire crews would be sent to a big wreck or two-alarm fire. So, at the age of 13, I was nicknamed "Black Cloud" by the firefighters because s--- happened whenever I showed up. I've had people go into anaphylactic shock on a train as I rode it to work, and once a homeless gentleman wandering on the tracks had both of his legs amputated by a train entering San Diego's main station as I stood there watching. I call it coincidental, but my friends and the JEMS staff joke that it is "Munchausen by proxy" because they think I cause it. Munchausen by proxy is actually considered a disorder whereby a person acts as if an individual they're caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person isn't really sick, so I call it "Black Cloud Syndrome."1 I always wanted to watch a cardiac catherization but didn't think I'd ever watch my own. Cavalcade of Events Whatever it is, it finally caught up to me in December when I found myself immobilized on a hospital cardiac catheterization table with a team cannulating my femoral artery, anticipating that they might have to open one or more of my coronary arteries. As a proponent of direct door-to-catheterization lab care, I laid there nervously wondering if I had finally jinxed myself. I often lecture that many of today's cardiac arrest patients have their ...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Cardiac & Resuscitation Columns Source Type: news