The Patient You are on a busy evening shift in resus. An 88 year-old man is brought in by ambulance with chest pain. The nursing staff have recorded initial observations, obtained IV access and got an ECG whilst you referred your last patient to the medical on-call team. The paramedics have handed over to a nurse […]
Case 5: Fever in a Returned Traveller
The Case You arrive in the ED for a late shift. It’s early Autumn and not that busy. You’re stationed in majors, and pick up your first patient. A 23 year old final year medical student. They’ve self-presented and the triage sheet says the following: 2/7 fever, diarrhoea and a rash. You head to see the patient in […]
Precordial Stab
I am currently on a 3-month elective in Cape Town, South Africa. I’m experiencing an awesome city, sampling a new flavour of emergency medicine, and getting exposed to some regular major trauma (an area of EM I am interested in, but have had minimal experience with so far). On day 3, I was involved in an amazing case… ‘If […]
Case 3: Demon in a Bottle
The Case… A 51-year-old man self-presents to your inner city ED one Friday evening; he’s complaining of mild abdominal pain and shortness of breath. A quick scan of his old notes at triage shows a background of Chronic Liver Disease secondary to alcohol. He does not appear in distress and is haemodynamically normal, so is […]
Case 2: She Came Disguised as an Acute Abdomen…
Here is a presentation we put together on this case. We skim over a lot of the content, which is covered in greater detail in the written post. We used prezi.com for the ‘virtual canvas’ style presentation. The situation… It was a Saturday night in a small suburban ED. It was my first ever night […]
Case 1: Who’s afraid of the big bad Wolff?
The Patient… 21 year old girl. Clean bill of health. 1 hour of unrelenting palpitations that stopped her being able to concentrate on writing her dissertation. On standing to get a cup of tea she feels very dizzy and like she is about to collapse. She lays down and calls for her boyfriend who phones an ambulance. 15 […]
