I had to leave my shift in the ED today in order to go play piano for the Musical Theatre Ensemble class at Charlottesville High School. And just when I thought I had gotten away from the madness of the hospital...
Literally one minute into rehearsal, one of the girls started feeling uncomfortable. She had a history of supraventricular tachycardias, but this time she was feeling weaker and her heart rate was faster than it had ever been before.
At that point, I initiated vagal maneuvers, ranging from having her hold her breath to having her bear down to even performing carotid massage on her. The school nurse arrived a few minutes later and took her to the clinic to lay down. I'm not sure what happened to her after that, but I hope she's doing better now.
The event itself made me realize how powerless I am without the gadgets and gizmos in the hospital. By the end of it, all I wanted was an EKG and some IV adenosine, but I had nothing with me out in the field. Sigh, being a doctor is going to be hard!
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