A 33-year old man with chest pain

October 31, 2007

Dropped dead waiting outside the ER, 3-hours after being triaged. WhiteCoat Rants comments.

Tagged as: patient

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Anonymous October 31, 2007 at 1:11 pm: about the gentleman who dropped dead outside an emergency room after waiting for 3 hours with chest pain. it is imperative triage nurses get recertification often enough so this wont happen. sometimes it aint the doctors fault, he may have never even known the patient was there.
2 KoKo October 31, 2007 at 2:10 pm: “it is imperative triage nurses get recertification often enough so this wont happen.”

Will this “recertification” also include a section called
“COMMONSENSE”?
3 Anonymous October 31, 2007 at 8:00 pm: Now now, watch out or Nurse K and the ER hens will hunt you down.
4 girlvet October 31, 2007 at 8:48 pm: I think doctors should spend some time in triage sometime and see how crazy it can get…it will give you a whole new perpspective. I am not justifying this triage nurses decision, but this is an example of what can happen in an ER that hasn’t got enough beds or staff to care for the patients.
5 Anonymous November 1, 2007 at 12:15 am: Girlvet, even us non-medical peole understand that chest + arm pains means EKG. How is it that you think a qualified RN would just over look this? This is human life, not a sick bird.