As a continuation of "Trauma Week", our Biomedical Sciences Class had the opportunity to be visited by Cassie Woodall, PICU (pediatric intensive care unit) PA at Women and Children's Hospital. She spoke to us about how drowning would be assessed in the Intensive Care Unit. To begin her lecture, she gave us valuable information about drowning in general. On average, 4,000 people die of drowning each year. At home pools are a common place for children drowning, for the household is the place in which parental guards are down the most. There are many risk factors that can cause a drowning:
-inadequate adult supervision
-inability to swim or overestimation of swimming capabilities
-risk-taking behavior
-use of alcohol and illicit drugs (more than 50% of adult drowning deaths are related to this)
-hypothermia, which can lead to rapid exhaustion or cardiac arrhythmias
-concomitant trauma, stroke, or myocardial infarction
-seizure disorder or developmental/behavioral disorders in children
-undetected cardiac arrhythmia
-hyperventilation
She explained to us the major symptoms that are most damaging to the body are a lack of oxygen to the brain or water in the lungs. These affects rarely occur at the same time, though. Those patients with lung related injuries are most likely to survive. Treatment for brain injuries are extremely limited. Drowning often causes Cerebral Edema, or brain swelling. The best way to treat this is by keeping the patient's head in mid-line, elevated 40-45 degrees. This method allows gravity to play a role in reducing the swelling. For a drowning patient, raising sodium levels (a small amount) in the blood can actually be beneficial. This helps remove water from cells. Other organs such as the heart and liver are much stronger organs that can bounce back from drowning injuries within 24-48 hours. A lot of the job of those working in the ICU is to keep the patient body functioning as normal as possible. This allows the body to heal itself.
This was an extremely fascinating and informing lecture. I would hope to hear more about the ICU soon.
תגובות