Last summer I initially declined treatment from paramedics. I had been kayaking all day, hard, in fairly high heat. There was plenty to drink, but it was all beer. Drugs were involved. I had diarrhea earlier in the day and some intestinal cramping, which the doctor said may have contributed vago-vasally to my situation. To top it all off, in reconstructing my day, I realized I had accidentally taken an extra Atenolol (hypertension med) that morning.
After the day of harder than usual paddling we went to my gf’s brother’s house. I began getting giddy, pale, sweaty, incoherent. He called an ambulance. When the paramedics arrived I initially was pissed off at my gf’s brother, but my gf asked me to allow the paramedics to check my BP. It was very low and thready. My gf eventually convinced me to cooperate and I’m glad I did.
I was discharged 24 hours later. My initial belligerence/denial was in part because I felt sooooo fuckin good.
The only way I can transport anyone without their express consent on my own authority is when they are unconscious. The legal principal is ‘Implied Consent’.
My best guess in the situation described is that with the call to a halfway house, the woman was still considered to be in custody, in which case the patient’s consent or lack thereof is irrelevant. However, when transporting a prisoner we need a badge to take the ride with us.
ETA: if she was not a resident of the HH, then they were absolutely wrong. The cops could arrest her and then compel transport, but they could be in a peck o’ trouble later on for false arrest.
IIRC, she’s run into several cases of people with either hyper- or hypoglycemia. Disney puts very, very strict restrictions on their healthcare people, so if they’re awake and oriented, she can’t very well demand that they test their blood sugar.
But yeah, she has literally had people tell her that they didn’t bring their blood sugar monitor, their strips, or their insulin, because they’re on vacation. Usually with a family member or three standing nearby, blinking, and asking “was that wrong? Should I have told her to bring it? I thought you guys might have some.”
I’m sure she sees far more than the average ER nurse/doc might because she’s right there in the park. But it’s amazing how people think that because Disneyland is nice enough to offer a First Aid office with bandaids and cots, they also stock insulin, heart medication, epi-pens, ADD medication, and zombie repellent. The stuff people do. Oy.
There are local variations I’m sure, but for the most part the protocols for determining consent are standardized. Your roommate was not able to take care of herself, and the paramedics told her “we can force you to come with us if you don’t come willingly.” They probably could have, if they called law enforcement and she was actually fighting as you say. The police can force someone to get treatment against their will if that person meets certain criteria for craziness. The paramedics themselves can do this as well, in some circumstances. Not really knowing what the circumstances were beyond your anecdote, I can’t say for sure if what they did was legal.
My former coworker is quite lactose intolerant. Well, an ice cream stand opened right near work, and she decided getting a large ice cream cone at lunch was worth it.
She spent the entire afternoon doubled over in the washroom. Then again, she didn’t particularly like work, so maybe getting paid to sit in intestinal agony was okay with her.
(we didn’t know she had the intolerance until this incident, otherwise I would have strongly discouraged her)
swet jebus, i travel with an extra week of meds and 30 days worth copies of my prescriptions just in case I lose something and need to hit a drugstore:eek:
I can not imagine being stupid enough to not bring my meds/glucometer/bp cuff and stethoscope.
Have to agree with Harmonious Discord. When my my dad was having a TIA, he seemed unaware that anything was wrong - even though he was paralyzed down the left side and couldn’t speak clearly. Repeated questioning didn’t make him realize it, either - he kept trying to do his usual stuff.
I can potentially believe that in my anecdote, he knew he was messed up but was in his normal denial, since he does the same thing for any and all health problems. He’s sneered about anyone who needs meds for cholesterol but at check-in for the TIA hospitalization revealed that he’s on Tricor - for cholesterol/triglyceride issues.
This includes the severe pneumonia plus gout that he had to be hospitalized for weeks for, which he didn’t allow anyone to take him in for (and just didn’t reveal that he was ill until then) until he was so debilitated that he could barely walk.
Not to mention that he remains in utter denial about the TIAs that he’s had, which don’t appear to have caused any significant lasting mental damage, and that he’s proud of his weight loss, which was entirely due to a recurring C. diff infection picked up while in the rehabilitation center after the pneumonia hospitalization.
Sometimes when people “cry sheep” over medical issues all their lives, they have to risk being treated like they still are in cases where it’s questionable.
I’ll have to ask my mom what the policy is and how it’s been handled in the past. People are rarely there all by themselves, so there’s usually someone else who can be convinced that husband/dad/brother/auntie/whoever is having a bad cerebral day. I suspect but can’t confirm that if a person is showing signs of a stroke/TIA/whatever and they are in denial about it, the EMTs are called in. Those guys are usually much better at talking a person into necessary care. If the person simply will not acknowledge their symptoms, then they may be considered aware/alert/oriented, and can be treated without their consent.
I do remember from my last Red Cross first aid class, the teacher told us in a kind of joking-but-not-really manner that if a person had two symptoms of a heart attack and denied them, it was time to call 911.
Tomorrow night, I have duty at the county rodeo. I don’t have problems with the other events, but the guys who ride the bulls border on ‘deliberate dumbass’. The horses, calves, steers, etc. have figured out that it is all a big game, but not the ton and a half of angry beef intent on stomping the rider or sticking a horn up his ass…
This might be too serious for an MMPS thread, but could you guys who mentioned an “epi headache” explain further what it is? Is it high blood pressure in the brain? My SO is deadly allergic to bee stings, but also had a brain bleed a bit over a year ago. So basically if he gets stung, he’s dead either way, is that right? That’s what I’m scared of, anyway.
Epinephrine is basically adrenaline. It constricts blood vessels, raising bp, and dilates bronchi in the lungs which is why it is so valuable in treating anaphylaxis. The headache comes from the possibility of causing arterial spasms in the head, causing what in essence is a migraine.
I’ve been lucky enough to not have had any allergies. Nobody in my family does, except my mom when the Russian tree in her yard is blooming. Then she sneezes a lot.
However, my brother once overdosed on all you can eat shrimp at Red Lobster, and ended up at the hospital when he turned red and was itching and swelling. I don’t think that’s technically an allergy, though, if you only respond to massive doses? I mean, that’s just…normal. Right?
I tried a similar performance at Joe’s Crab Shack, because I will eat every crab in the ocean if it’s in front of me, but no luck. Still not allergic! Will have to try harder next time.
The proper non-allergic reaction to overdosing on crab and lobster is to power hurl. Turning red and itchy is an allergic reaction worthy of benadryl; red, itchy, and gasping for breath is anaphylaxis, and it gets you benadryl, epinephrine, and a ride with lights, sirens, and 2-3 nice people who will faun all over you in the process.
My grandmother spent the last couple of months of her life lying in bed on oxygen. Her 3 daughters took turns spending the night with her, with a nurse there during the day. Everyone of them had the experience of going to a different room to do something for a few minutes, coming back in and finding her smoking a cigarette with the oxygen still on. She was bedridden, but she had packs hidden all over the bed and they did not find them all before she finally died. We never did figure out why she never went up in flames.
Then there is my mother. I was waiting on my nephew who was supposed to be somewhere with me, so I sent him a text asking where he was. He replied he was with my mother (whom he lives with) trying to get her to go to the doctor. I called him and asked what was going on. Nothing major, she was having chest pains and difficulty breathing, but didn’t want to go to the doctor.
I told him to tell her either get in the car and go to the doctor, or he calls 911 and she could ride to the hospital in an ambulance. He had already done that and she had replied she would refuse treatment. :rolleyes:
My sister got there and bullied her into seeing the doctor. It was pneumonia in one lobe of her lung. The doctor gave her anti-biotics and told her no smoking until it cleared up. It only took 3 more attempts to smoke a cigarette and being in agony after one puff to get her to put them away until the pneumonia was gone.
My family apparently gets really addicted to nicotine.
I had diarrhea earlier in the day and some intestinal cramping, which the doctor said may have contributed vago-vasally to my situation. To top it all off, in reconstructing my day, I realized I had accidentally taken an extra Atenolol (hypertension med) that morning.