paranoid freak.
We went to the park with a bunch of friends, the men played softball
while the women chased around the kids. We bbq'd hot dogs & then i
went into psycho rt mode. My little kids are 5 & 2 years old. I cut
their weenies into pieces & made them sit and eat quietly. All the
while I am planning ahead...
Heimlech manuever. Flip them upside down & thump them on their back.
Which is the closest hospital? Do I know anyone who works there? Could
I really do CPR on my own kid? Is there a pen in my purse so I can
trach them? I've seen it done on tv. I know, I'm a freak. I already
admitted that.
As I'm making my plan for the worst case senario, I see someone elses
1 year old running around with a whole hotdog in her hand. WTF!!! Are
you freakin crazy? Do you really want to hear stories of the f'd up
stuff I've seen?
Crap! Can't I just relax & have a good time without constantly
worrying about a patent airway?
Please, if you care about my sanity, let alone my blood pressure, do
not let little kids eat unattended! Be careful with hot dogs, grapes
& whatever else is the perfect size to occlude an airway.
Thank God it turned out to be just a nice uneventful day at the park.
4 comments:
I always make my nephews sit down when they're eating. The sad reality is that sometimes kids get the whole swallowing and inhaling thing mixed up, when they're distracted while eating, which can have horrible consequences.
I'm always on the lookout for public acess AEDs, "just in case"... I also have a pair of nitrile gloves in my pocket, "just in case"... and I'm only a first semester RT Student.
I'm a freak about stuff like that too. You're not alone.
We SEE every day what can happen. It's hard to not be like that.
Out and about, I see people and think to myself "That's a trauma waiting to happen." Bicyclists without helmets, kids running around, drivers without seatbelts...it's everywhere!
I sympathize, but you need to reconsider the trach idea.
This isn't a TV show or movie. Have you ever seen this done successfully outside of the hospital? Have you ever treated a patient, who had this done successfully outside of the hospital? If the problem is airway obstruction, and you are not able to clear the airway by BLS means, is cutting into the trachea going to improve anything?
If the airway is obstructed, the obstruction is likely to be right where you are cutting. If you cut into the trachea and it is blocked by a piece of meat, does this make anything better? If you are dealing with a pediatric airway, is the pen small enough to fit into the trachea?
My experience with crichothyrotomy is to expect blood. There are arteries in the area. Anatomy varies a lot among people, so you do not know where to cut to miss the arteries.
If you are uncomfortable with the idea of performing CPR on a child, especially your own child, how do you expect to do something much more stressful and requiring much more skill?
The Heimlich should be all you need to do.
Relax.
You see many bad outcomes in the hospital. You do not see what is typical.
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