You might think of these more often than many others so I’m not getting full marks for the assignment. Can’t hurt to review the basics though.
Stroke
Memory aid: FAST for Face, Arm, Speech, Time. It’s a reminder to look for facial features drooping on one side, arm weakness, and speech abnormalities (slurred, jumbled, absent, etc.) indicating that it’s time to call for emergency medical services.
Heart attack
Pain above the belt line (often chest and arm but can show up many ways), difficulty breathing, heavy sweating, pale skin, and a sense of impending doom. Last one’s a bit weird: either heart attacks give you the ability to imprecisely sense the very near future or your body is starting to feel the inefficiency of a failing system.
Diabetic emergency
Often, a person who seems drunk is just drunk. They might be diabetic and having problems with regulation of blood sugar levels instead though. Look for medical alert wristbands and things of that sort which may provide a clue into what’s going on if they’re having a hard time communicating verbally.
Sugar levels might be too high or might be too low but for the short time until the ambulance shows up, I’d treat it as low by default. Food and drinks with sugar might help but consider choking risks and other hazards in case they seem like they may lose consciousness or have difficulty swallowing.
In all of these cases, calling for EMS early is one of the most important steps you can take. Get that ball rolling as soon as it is reasonable to do so since minutes can make a difference if it turns out to be something serious and the patient’s condition goes downhill fast. I’m also going off the assumption that there aren’t more suitable explanations (e.g. slurred speech immediately after a root canal might not make me think of a stroke right away) for signs and symptoms on display.
I had a co-worker who had a stroke while he was on shift, the only symptom he had was that his arm went limp and he couldn’t control it properly. He left early to go to the hospital and didn’t find out it was a stroke for about 6 hours because none of the other symptoms turned up. He said they had to take him for multiple different tests before they figured out what it was.
You might think of these more often than many others so I’m not getting full marks for the assignment. Can’t hurt to review the basics though.
Stroke
Memory aid: FAST for Face, Arm, Speech, Time. It’s a reminder to look for facial features drooping on one side, arm weakness, and speech abnormalities (slurred, jumbled, absent, etc.) indicating that it’s time to call for emergency medical services.
Heart attack
Pain above the belt line (often chest and arm but can show up many ways), difficulty breathing, heavy sweating, pale skin, and a sense of impending doom. Last one’s a bit weird: either heart attacks give you the ability to imprecisely sense the very near future or your body is starting to feel the inefficiency of a failing system.
Diabetic emergency
Often, a person who seems drunk is just drunk. They might be diabetic and having problems with regulation of blood sugar levels instead though. Look for medical alert wristbands and things of that sort which may provide a clue into what’s going on if they’re having a hard time communicating verbally.
Sugar levels might be too high or might be too low but for the short time until the ambulance shows up, I’d treat it as low by default. Food and drinks with sugar might help but consider choking risks and other hazards in case they seem like they may lose consciousness or have difficulty swallowing.
In all of these cases, calling for EMS early is one of the most important steps you can take. Get that ball rolling as soon as it is reasonable to do so since minutes can make a difference if it turns out to be something serious and the patient’s condition goes downhill fast. I’m also going off the assumption that there aren’t more suitable explanations (e.g. slurred speech immediately after a root canal might not make me think of a stroke right away) for signs and symptoms on display.
Heart attack symptoms are different for women. I wonder if that’s true for the other ones too.
I had a co-worker who had a stroke while he was on shift, the only symptom he had was that his arm went limp and he couldn’t control it properly. He left early to go to the hospital and didn’t find out it was a stroke for about 6 hours because none of the other symptoms turned up. He said they had to take him for multiple different tests before they figured out what it was.