Stat!

[Aurora Black]

I need a nurse, preferably with some experience in the ER. There's a scene that I'm working on that involves a middle-aged man being rushed into the ER during a severe heart attack. What goes on in this situation? Techniques, injections, lingo... I want to know everything you have to tell me.

Any help on this would be appreciated, and thanks in advance.

 

[Nirvanadragones]

I think I might have a nurses uniform somewhere. Would that help in any way?

 

[CharleyH]

I need a nurse, preferably with some experience in the ER. There's a scene that I'm working on that involves a middle-aged man being rushed into the ER during a severe heart attack. What goes on in this situation? Techniques, injections, lingo... I want to know everything you have to tell me.

Any help on this would be appreciated, and thanks in advance.

Wish I could help - have you seen ER?

I know "something" of enemas and cathetars

Edit for quotations.

 

[minsue]

Wish I could help - have you seen ER?

I know "something: of enemas and cathetars

Intubate! No matter what any of the characters are there for, on ER they always, always intubate.

 

[3113]

I need a nurse, preferably with some experience in the ER. There's a scene that I'm working on that involves a middle-aged man being rushed into the ER during a severe heart attack. What goes on in this situation? Techniques, injections, lingo... I want to know everything you have to tell me.

Any help on this would be appreciated, and thanks in advance.

I'm not a nurse, but how bad is this heart attack? My father actually DROVE himself to the hospital when he had a heart attack--yeah, I know, tell me about it! The family was NOT happy with him.

In CPR class you learn a few things:
1) If someone starts to have a heart attack, you tell them to cough. Apparently, this helps get the heart back to beating normally.
2) You can give someone having a heart attack asprin. It does, evidently, help.
3) If the heart stops, you do CPR until the paramedics arrive.
4) If the heart does not start up with CPR, there are small defibrillators. Many places with first aid kits (gyms, for example, airplanes) have these portable defibrillators--and people can be trained to use them easily as their computerized and pretty much explain themselves (put patches where shown on the diagram, wait for machine to say it's ready, push button). Paramedics have this as well.

So, if the guy were having a heart attack, and his heart stopped, the paramedics would have already used the defibrillator on him. If he was having an attack and it stopped at the hospital, the ER crew would use one on him. A shock to the heart to get it going again.

How severe is the heart attack? Does his heart stop and need to be shocked back into action? Or can he, well, drive himself to the hospital?

 

[Aurora Black]

I think I might have a nurses uniform somewhere. Would that help in any way?

Not with the story.

 

[Aurora Black]

Wish I could help - have you seen ER?

I know "something" of enemas and cathetars

Edit for quotations.

ER? Oh no!

 

[Aurora Black]

Intubate! No matter what any of the characters are there for, on ER they always, always intubate.

For a moment there I thought you'd typed something similar yet completely different. Yes, my mind is in the gutter. This is Lit.

 

[Aurora Black]

I'm not a nurse, but how bad is this heart attack? My father actually DROVE himself to the hospital when he had a heart attack--yeah, I know, tell me about it! The family was NOT happy with him.

In CPR class you learn a few things:
1) If someone starts to have a heart attack, you tell them to cough. Apparently, this helps get the heart back to beating normally.
2) You can give someone having a heart attack asprin. It does, evidently, help.
3) If the heart stops, you do CPR until the paramedics arrive.
4) If the heart does not start up with CPR, there are small defibrillators. Many places with first aid kits (gyms, for example, airplanes) have these portable defibrillators--and people can be trained to use them easily as their computerized and pretty much explain themselves (put patches where shown on the diagram, wait for machine to say it's ready, push button). Paramedics have this as well.

So, if the guy were having a heart attack, and his heart stopped, the paramedics would have already used the defibrillator on him. If he was having an attack and it stopped at the hospital, the ER crew would use one on him. A shock to the heart to get it going again.

How severe is the heart attack? Does his heart stop and need to be shocked back into action? Or can he, well, drive himself to the hospital?

I'm sorry about your father.

Yes, his heart will stop at the hospital but they won't be able to save him. I don't want him to have asprin during the onset of the attack. I want him to be brought in for immediate treatment at the ER, his heart will give out and they won't be able to revive him. This death is indirectly linked to the main plot, yet it is essential in relation to the characters.

 

[Aurora Black]

I'm off to bed. Otherwise I'll collapse. Night, y'all.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I can tell you how it was from the patient POV...would that help?

 

[CharleyH]

Intubate! No matter what any of the characters are there for, on ER they always, always intubate.

Can I just say ... WTF?

Edit to add- well hell - you say it to me all the time.

 

[Aurora Black]

I can tell you how it was from the patient POV...would that help?

Sure, why not? I'm going to focus more on the nurse on duty, but every bit of info helps.

 

[Huckleman2000]

I think I might have a nurses uniform somewhere. Would that help in any way?

Okay, I read the rest of the thread, but this is all I remember.

Please, elaborate. Pictures would help. Or, just filthy descriptions of how you've used this outfit in the past.

Sponge baths. Just go with that...

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Sure, why not? I'm going to focus more on the nurse on duty, but every bit of info helps.

Pain, more pain, ride in ambulance, pain, nitro under tongue, pain, siren, wife crying, pain, someone cutting my clothes off, pain, darkness, no pain, talking to god, pain, light, pain, wife asking if I was ok, pain, nurse shaving my private places, pain, doctors talking, relief, pain gone, sleeping, waking in ICU.

Sorry I can't be more lucid with the details but I was in pain.

 

[Aurora Black]

Pain, more pain, ride in ambulance, pain, nitro under tongue, pain, siren, wife crying, pain, someone cutting my clothes off, pain, darkness, no pain, talking to god, pain, light, pain, wife asking if I was ok, pain, nurse shaving my private places, pain, doctors talking, relief, pain gone, sleeping, waking in ICU.

Sorry I can't be more lucid with the details but I was in pain.

Lots of pain. I'm writing about pain. This could work.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Lots of pain. I'm writing about pain. This could work.

Pain so bad you can't breathe. The pain made everything just as I wrote it in my prior post...all disjointed and flashy kind of. And I don't really think I was talking to god, but who knows, I do remember talking with someone while there was no pain and all was dark. Then the pain came back. That was after they shocked me twice to get me back from the darkness.

 

[Aurora Black]

Pain so bad you can't breathe. The pain made everything just as I wrote it in my prior post...all disjointed and flashy kind of. And I don't really think I was talking to god, but who knows, I do remember talking with someone while there was no pain and all was dark. Then the pain came back. That was after they shocked me twice to get me back from the darkness.

Unfortunately the poor guy won't come back from there. For the story to go on, he must die.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Unfortunately the poor guy won't come back from there. For the story to go on, he must die.

I have no problem with that...so you can just leave him talking with god.

 

[Aurora Black]

I have no problem with that...so you can just leave him talking with god.

The thing is that I'm not focusing on the guy at all, but on the nurse that's trying to save him and fails.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

The thing is that I'm not focusing on the guy at all, but on the nurse that's trying to save him and fails.

Well then that's why he dies...just a nurse trying to save him. Where's the doctor(s)?

 

[Aurora Black]

Well then that's why he dies...just a nurse trying to save him. Where's the doctor(s)?

*deep breath* Zeb, that's why I asked for help in the first place. I don't know how the whole ER situation works. I don't know who's there (how many doctors or nurses for each emergency arrival), and I don't know what the standard proceedure is for a heart attack patient besides the zapping part. That's why I'm here, to learn more about what goes on. I would ask someone else if I could, but I don't know anyone who works or has worked in a hospital except my mom, but she wouldn't know about the ER because she worked in medical records... etc, etc.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

*deep breath* Zeb, that's why I asked for help in the first place. I don't know how the whole ER situation works. I don't know who's there (how many doctors or nurses for each emergency arrival), and I don't know what the standard proceedure is for a heart attack patient besides the zapping part. That's why I'm here, to learn more about what goes on. I would ask someone else if I could, but I don't know anyone who works or has worked in a hospital except my mom, but she wouldn't know about the ER because she worked in medical records... etc, etc.

Well...where to start.

First, most ER's in US big cities have a 4 - 6 doctors (residents) on duty. Then there are usually 1 - 2 attendings (these are doctors with more experience).

Second, there is a process of determining which patient get the most attention, this is call triage. A patient with a life threatening afliction would be taken and receive the attention of all who are there before the guy with a cut finger.

So, for a heart attack victim, there would be most likely two doctors (a resident and an attending) and at least two nurses, if not more.

The orders would be called out by the attending and if he was called away the resident would take over. The resident wouldn't leave as long as the patient is not stable.

I pretty sure this is how it works...you may want to check with SeaCat on everything I have told you, as I could have it all wrong.

And if the Hospital is a teaching hospital there are any number of interns present.

 

[Aurora Black]

Well...where to start.

First, most ER's in US big cities have a 4 - 6 doctors (residents) on duty. Then there are usually 1 - 2 attendings (these are doctors with more experience).

Second, there is a process of determining which patient get the most attention, this is call triage. A patient with a life threatening afliction would be taken and receive the attention of all who are there before the guy with a cut finger.

So, for a heart attack victim, there would be most likely two doctors (a resident and an attending) and at least two nurses, if not more.

The orders would be called out by the attending and if he was called away the resident would take over. The resident wouldn't leave as long as the patient is not stable.

I pretty sure this is how it works...you may want to check with SeaCat on everything I have told you, as I could have it all wrong.

And if the Hospital is a teaching hospital there are any number of interns present.

*scribbling notes furiously*

 

[lucky-E-leven]

Vella was an ER nurse for ages, as well as a specialist on all things heart-related. I'd drop her a PM with specific things you'd like to know. She's a wealth of information for the situation you describe.

~lucky