She is not going to be OK

Code 3 for the fall.

A frantic couple waves us towards the backyard of a house. There are a few more family members, probably at least 3 generations. Blood everywhere. The grandmother is on the ground, blood streaming out of her ears. It’s difficult to even see where else all this blood is coming from.

It looks like she fell. Nobody saw her fall, but she is usually independent, and was actually working the grill just a few moments back.

Asystole.

She is intubated despite the sun’s best attempt to white out everything in her lower airway and immobilized on a longboard.

“Is she going to be OK?”

How do you answer that question about Grandma? It’s Mother’s Day.

Random old posts:

• Armando Galarraga has class
• Sensibly realizing that this is nonsense
• Jack Kevorkian
• That was not the correct response
• Don’t re-write the parable of the Good Samaritan