Do You Listen to Heart Sounds? This May be Another Reason Why You Should.

I’m not sure about you, but when I went to school to become a paramedic (and a nurse for that matter), one thing I never really understood was heart sounds, or heart tones, depending on who taught you. My attempt at learning resorted to scouring textbooks, journals, online editorials, watching clips on YouTube and listening… lots of listening to sound bites from CDs. You know the ones, they come free when you buy a new stethoscope. Instead of turning to digital media, I should’ve been listening to the hearts of my patients. Hindsight is 20/20, especially in this case. All my self-guided education yielded few results, which was discouraging, to say the least. Because of this, I let it slip from my list of competent skills. That is, until I took care of Henry. Henry is a 68-year-old gentleman. I say “is” with bit of guarded breath because, for a short time, Henry was quickly falling off the cliff. You know, that seemingly short height that separates life from death. But don’t worry, we’ll get him back by then end of this story. I met Henry after he called 9-1-1 with some concerning symptoms: A near syncopal episode, shortness of breath and chest discomfort. On arrival, a standard assessment revealed the following: Objective Assessment & Vital Signs Alert and oriented; No jugular venous distention or pressure; Lung sounds mid- to base rales; Palpable pulses; 2+ pitting lower extremity edema, Skin is pink, warm and dry; Heart rate/rhythm: 90 beats per minute, c...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Patient Care Cardiac & Resuscitation Source Type: news