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Does anyone here know anything about ER procedure? I am writing something that involves the following scenario and requires facts I’m having trouble finding... well shy of busting a leg so I can talk to them in person:
Two people, a man and a woman, are brought into the ER suffering from hypothermia, with the woman being the more severe case. This all takes place in Massachusetts during January and they had been exposed to waters which were obviously cold.
The male had pulled the female (total stranger) out of a river after she had made a near successful suicide attempt by jumping off a bridge of maybe twenty feet high. She was not breathing and had no pulse when the male retrieved her but performed immediate CPR on the riverbank and got her breathing again, though she never regained full consciousness in his presence. He also became very hypothermic from the swim and lost consciousness shortly before rescue personnel reached them, but regained it during the ambulance ride. A couple of other notable facts are that she landed in the water feet first, her shoulder was dislocated by the impact but was accidentally reset by the male on the bank while removing her jacket, and she was also extremely drunk at the time of the incident.
So my questions are:
1 - Considering they are both breathing on their own and on arrival are at least semi-conscious, what would the logical procedure be for the ER staff to treat them? I'm not sure what appropriate body temps to assign them for the symptoms they are displaying, but said male's breathing and circulation never stopped while the female had been ‘down’ for about four or five minutes due to drowning before being revived.
I do know the trick for such trauma is not to warm them up too quickly or cardiac arrest can result, and that hospitals often use machines to bring up core temperatures such as one which provide warmed air to breath, electrically or air heated blankets, or in the worst cases one which warms the blood directly.
2 - How long would one expect the male to be kept assuming he shows no injuries or complications, recovers once his body temp is corrected and is not considered a danger to himself since he was injured in a rescue.
3 - What kind of complications could the female have from such a physically traumatic experience? For the sake of the story I don’t want her too seriously injured, though the injured shoulder is important. In fact I would like to have her back at work within a week, which has to do with her avoidant “work-oholic” personality and the plot.
4 - How would such a serious attempted suicide be treated? It is my understanding that they would keep her involuntarily for at least a 72-hour evaluation by psychiatrists, but beyond that I know nothing about the procedure.
Do the courts automatically get involved? Her attitude is not combative but not exactly cooperative either, initially she refuses to give out any personal info other than her first name. I’m debating whether to have her either ‘BS’ her way into some kind of psychological out-patient treatment (relenting on her full name / she has no suicide history) or even go as far as having her sneak out of the hospital, assuming that can happen with any credibility. At this period in the story I don’t see her willingly cooperating with psychiatrists, but just paying them just lip service if forced to see one.
I’m sure this is all a good example of “where the rubber meets the road” when it comes to doing one’s own research relating to their writings, but I thought I’d throw it out there and see if anyone here could point me in the right directions.
Two people, a man and a woman, are brought into the ER suffering from hypothermia, with the woman being the more severe case. This all takes place in Massachusetts during January and they had been exposed to waters which were obviously cold.
The male had pulled the female (total stranger) out of a river after she had made a near successful suicide attempt by jumping off a bridge of maybe twenty feet high. She was not breathing and had no pulse when the male retrieved her but performed immediate CPR on the riverbank and got her breathing again, though she never regained full consciousness in his presence. He also became very hypothermic from the swim and lost consciousness shortly before rescue personnel reached them, but regained it during the ambulance ride. A couple of other notable facts are that she landed in the water feet first, her shoulder was dislocated by the impact but was accidentally reset by the male on the bank while removing her jacket, and she was also extremely drunk at the time of the incident.
So my questions are:
1 - Considering they are both breathing on their own and on arrival are at least semi-conscious, what would the logical procedure be for the ER staff to treat them? I'm not sure what appropriate body temps to assign them for the symptoms they are displaying, but said male's breathing and circulation never stopped while the female had been ‘down’ for about four or five minutes due to drowning before being revived.
I do know the trick for such trauma is not to warm them up too quickly or cardiac arrest can result, and that hospitals often use machines to bring up core temperatures such as one which provide warmed air to breath, electrically or air heated blankets, or in the worst cases one which warms the blood directly.
2 - How long would one expect the male to be kept assuming he shows no injuries or complications, recovers once his body temp is corrected and is not considered a danger to himself since he was injured in a rescue.
3 - What kind of complications could the female have from such a physically traumatic experience? For the sake of the story I don’t want her too seriously injured, though the injured shoulder is important. In fact I would like to have her back at work within a week, which has to do with her avoidant “work-oholic” personality and the plot.
4 - How would such a serious attempted suicide be treated? It is my understanding that they would keep her involuntarily for at least a 72-hour evaluation by psychiatrists, but beyond that I know nothing about the procedure.
Do the courts automatically get involved? Her attitude is not combative but not exactly cooperative either, initially she refuses to give out any personal info other than her first name. I’m debating whether to have her either ‘BS’ her way into some kind of psychological out-patient treatment (relenting on her full name / she has no suicide history) or even go as far as having her sneak out of the hospital, assuming that can happen with any credibility. At this period in the story I don’t see her willingly cooperating with psychiatrists, but just paying them just lip service if forced to see one.
I’m sure this is all a good example of “where the rubber meets the road” when it comes to doing one’s own research relating to their writings, but I thought I’d throw it out there and see if anyone here could point me in the right directions.
