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Grand Rounds Vol 4:4









Welcome to NY Emergency Medicine and to this week's edition of Grand Rounds! First, a hearty thanks to Nick Genes for giving me this opportunity. It is my pleasure to host such a talented group of writers and to be a part of this wonderful community. Over the last year, NY Emergency Medicine tried to present different aspects of emergency medicine. Whether it was an uplifting story or one of despair, tales from the emergency department are never bland and always instructional. This week's grand rounds is my dedication to the practitioners of emergency medicine. Emergency Medicine doctors, nurses, administrators, and EMS responders provide the safety net of our society. The emergency department is a place of refuge and last resort for many. Although some patients can be challenging, they teach us something new about life and death everyday. So this grand rounds is also for the patients who we have great respect for. Lets go on rounds.

ER Nursey writes about the ED as being the Great Equalizer. This is something that I've always believed. In the ED, you are only important if you are sick. The triage system was developed for a reason.


Though Dr Bee works in the pediatric department - her experiences are common to all ED providers. All of the hard work pays off when you positively affect the life of another. This is why we do what we do.

Madness:Tales of an emergency room nurse has certainly seen it all, from discharging a successfully treated patient to watching a family say good-bye to a loved one. Here are some of her thoughts when grandma is hanging on by a thread.

In the ED, we are known for our resourcefulness; such as our ability to use stool softener (liquid colace) as an aid to remove wax from a patient's ear. Insureblog captures this resourcefulness in his post "Nurse, a fifth of Grey Goose, stat!", where intravenous vodka saves a patient's life!

Our specialty developed the field of toxicology. Thanks to Dr Val at Revolution Health, who discusses the quantity of lead a child needs to ingest to become toxic. Is lead poisoning on the rise?


Rickety Contrivances of Doing Good discusses the role of narrative medicine in the setting of trauma...the art of turning experience into story.

How about all that penetrating trauma? Wyatt at Foggybottomlantern discusses sudden, unexpected death due to bullets from heaven.

Have a migraine and tired of taking all of those medications? Read this post from How to Cope with Pain and learn some alternative methods to treat your migraine.

Here is a way to cut down on ED overcrowding; Dr Bookspan, the Fitness Fixer, discusses some easy ways to prevent back pain. Listen up everyone!

Dream or reality? You'll have to figure this one out as a surgeon discusses his experience of walking into an operating room with his "naked torso". I'd like to see that in the ED!


Massive strokes. We see them daily in the ED. A Chronic Dose offers a tribute to her grandmother in her post Behind Blue Eyes

Like to swim in the ocean? To avoid being bit from a wild marine animal and a trip to the ED, you should read this post by Dr Auerbach on the Territoriality of Fish.

A 60-year-old with chest pain presents to the ED. It is a slam dunk admission. But what about the teenager with chest pain? Dr Brown reminds us that heart attacks can occur in the young.


Visit the Health Business Blog if you are interested in reading (or listening to) an interview with Dr Henry DePhillips, Chief Medical Officer of MEDecision.

Dr Deb reminds us of Mental Health Day and the impact of culture and diversity. While Health Observances spotlights the mental health of the children of war veterans.

What do Bill Clinton, Tom Cruise, and Fidel Castro have in common? The are all left-handed. Can fetal ultrasound influence the handedness of your child. Find out more by reading Fruit of the Womb's post titled Obstetrical Ultrasound and Lefthandedness.

If you are looking for Web 2.0 resources for patients with diabetes, Science roll may have what you need. And don't miss this story of a diabetic emergency by Six Until Me

Christine at But You Don't Look Sick, nicely outlines her reasons for participating in the Lupus Walk in the face of adversity.

A topic dear to my heart but not to my stomach; competitive eating. Tara at The Health Dish warns that competitive eating is sending the wrong message to an already overweight America. (Did I mention that I am the NYC Twinkie eating champ?)

On the contrary, Junkfood Science discusses the movement to encourage weight loss and thinness among HIV-infected patients.

Is fraudulent documentation running rampant in your ED? ER Murse highlights how some physicians who use templated charting are walking a slippery slope.

Missed the Aspen Health Forum? Sharpbrains has you covered.

If you want to cite any portion of this blog in your ground-breaking research article, then visit Dr Schwimmer at Tech Medicine and he'll tell you how.

Three sisters search desperately for a kidney donor for their father. Here is their story.

Thank you all for visiting...Next week's Grand Rounds is at Pallimed

Take a look at an interview on Medscape with NY Emergency Medicine that discusses blogging, the web, and medical education.