While rounding, I was paged overhead to come down to ER for a stroke that had just arrived. Guy who can't move his right side.
So I'm sitting here in ER, watching him from the nurses' station, waiting for my turn to go in. Nurses are hooking him up to stuff, techs in there drawing blood, an EMT going over info with another nurse.
In the middle of this all the patient is lying there, calmly texting with his left hand.
27 comments:
so apparently his Wernicke's area is doing just fine. hey, could be doing worse things with his functional hand.
well, I guess that is better than him lying there totally freaking out and trying to punch someone with his left hand, right?
Wow!!! Kinda makes you wonder what we all did BEFORE we had cell phones!!!! I wonder if the stroke took out his "Oh Shit!!!" reflex?
Now, that's what I call making the best out of a crappy situation!
I hate to say it, but that could definitely be me in the future. ;)
Well, its better than staring at the ceiling. . .
I'm torn. My first thought was to wonder why the patient doesn't have someone with them handling the texting. (I tweeted updates throughout my husband's ER trip following a seizure.) Hot on its heels was "how the heck does someone text one-handed?".
That is just fantastic, lol. I know that I never see anyone under the age of 25 without a cell phone texting in hand, but someone of that age? Wow
God forbid you lose your ability to text. Then it's all over. Might as well not live. (can u tell I'm the mother of a teen?)
If he really was having a left MCA stroke, I'd be curious to see what those texts looked like....
Hmmmm I could envision you typing out a post about your stroke as you were having it hehe
Isn't technology wonderful
Geez, sounds like something I'd do!I love my txt!
That is the best one yet, Dr. G. !!!
I would love to see the text...
"OMG hving stroke lol, ttyl"
I suppose that was the best way to let his wife know what was happening?
Impressive- but only if he was spelling stuf out on the 9 digit keypad, not a full qwerty keyboard. :)
(And hey- doesn't that give you a decent neuro assessment? or maybe not, dunno if he was texting gibberish to wrong numbers, lol)
Too funny, but does not surprise me.
Mommy-Medic: Actually it was QWERTY, just slow going with one hand.
Sparklen: He's a hell of a lot younger than you think. Too young.
This wasn't the business guy that you blogged about a while ago that couldn't get off his phone for his appointment with you and expected you to work around his schedule? Sounds just like something he would have done.
Sue- good point, but no, it wasn't him.
there is a generation of people now who could text under 10 tons of wet cement. hopefully they will all be buried with their cell phones and be able to confirm to those remaining the existence of heaven.....or hell.
but then again hopefully god has banned the use of cell phones or it might be too easy to confuse his/her domain with the other place.
Hmmm....maybe if you build a good rapport, he can come to you for carpal tunnel or another upper extremity nerve pain as an outpatient....
Amazing!! Texting in sick to work?? LOL!!
Aren't cell phones supposed to be turned off in ER?
Anosognosia?
LMAO! He was probably Twittering about it.
Right brain dominant obviously - otherwise he might exhibit "Blackberry Hemineglect"
You don't say - how about this guy who twittered at the altar??
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSkT5XykJzo
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