Vital Signs By H. Lee Kagan Summary

Biology 511 Article Summary
Vital Signs By H. Lee Kagan

Vital Signs by an internist H. Lee Kagan is an account of a healthy-looking woman without warning (no crying, no clutching of chest), suddenly collapsed onto the floor during check in at a clinic. A doctor acts swiftly to diagnose the potential fatal conditions the patient might be experiencing. First, the doctor checked the three most important things: airway, breathing, and circulation and concluded that the patient has no cardiac or respiratory problems. In no more than a minute, the patient recovered rapidly after an abrupt loss of consciousness. This leads to the doctor’s tentative conclusion that the patient had experienced an episode of syncope (commonly known as faint). Through talking to the patient, we learned that she has no history of heart problems or palpitations prior to her fainting. She felt slightly unwell after snacked on some raw sweet peppers that had been left untouched for days. The doctor could not find a
The allergic triggers are usually food especially nuts, shellfish, and also peppers, medications, or insect stings. The symptoms typically involve the skin (hives, flushing, itching) and may also include the respiratory failure) and the cardiovascular system (low blood pressure and shock). Before the paramedics arrived, the doctor injected a does of epinephrine (adrenaline) into the patient’s thing muscle, started an IV to help restore the volume of liquid circulating through her arteries, and placed tubing under her nose to maximize the amount of oxygen delivered to the tissues through blood. The patient’s blood pressure raised up to 90 and within two hours, her blood pressure was