Wednesday, April 27, 2011

I'd Rather Have A Heart Attack

Man comes to triage complaining of chest pain.

Me: What sort of medical history do you have?
Man: I have high blood pressure but I haven't taken my pills for a few days. I ran out.
(Man's blood pressure is 192/113)
Me: What other history do you have?
Man: I have high cholesterol.
Me: And what do you take for that?
Man: Well I used to take statins but I stopped taking them a few months ago because I didn't like all of the negative publicity around them.
Me: (pause) Oh-kay. And what about all the negative publicity around heart attacks? Have you ever seen or heard any of that?
Man: Yeah I guess so.

Guess my lecture was too late. The man was having a huge heart attack. Practically preventable had he been taking his cholesterol pills.

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