title: Patient puzzle. Use systematic assessment to detect & correct patient conditions.
abstract: Medic 27 responds to a report of a fall victim at 27 West Pinnacle Lane. En route, the crew learns from dispatch that the patient fell approximately 25 feet from the roof of a three-story structure onto the roof of an adjacent garage. The caller reports the patient "going in and out of consciousness." The EMS crew requests the dispatch of a rescue unit and ladder company to assist on scene and the placement of a medical helicopter on standby. On scene, the patient's wife reports her husband accidentally disturbed a hornets' nest as he secured a weather vane to the top of the family home. She says the hornets stung her husband repeatedly. In his attempt to avoid the stings, his movements jarred the ladder, causing him to fall to the roof below. As you walk to the side of the patient's home, his wife adds that her husband has a cardiac condition and now complains of chest pain and trouble breathing. You wonder what you'll find when you reach the victim. Is he a medical patient with traumatic injuries or a trauma patient with medical complications?
authors.affiliation: Emergency Medicine Program, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Pittsburgh, USA. stoy@pitt.edu
authors.forename: W A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Stoy
mesh_terms: D000061:Accidents, Home; D000465:Algorithms; D004496:Education, Continuing; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000592:standards*; D004638:Emergency Treatment / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008487:Medical History Taking; D010808:Physical Examination; D014481:United States; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology