The Fast Track
An Emergency Medicine Publication
Winter 2014
me he wasn’t feeling well, so we gave him a popsicle and had him lay down in the living room to rest for a bit and see if he got any better. Then another one started to complain. And another. And another. I was worried we had a flu-bug going around until I too began to feel sick, almost lightheaded and dizzy. That was the final straw. My husband and I loaded up the kids into the minivan and drove to the ER. After some initial testing and some probing the ED doc got a funny look on his face when we mentioned we had just turned on our heater due to the cold outside. And here we are now, sitting around the room, all eight of us, with plastic tubes extending from the center of the room where a metal gas container looked almost like a sad excuse for a hookah setup. The tubing connected to the plastic masks all strapped to our faces like examples of when an airplane cabin depressurizes, and we sat around the staring at each other. I still had that queasy feeling in my stomach and a slight throbbing headache, but it was good to see the kids starting to perk up a bit and smiling. What a way to celebrate a birthday.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning What would a cold weather or winter medical emergency discussion be without carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning? When the weather turns cold and the heat turns on, carbon monoxide has to move up the differential for your patients that present to the ED without a clear explanation for their complaints. Numbers vary, but CO poisoning/exposure is estimated to account for 40,000-80,000 ED visits annually with approximately 10% of all exposures resulting in death. The problem with CO is that we cannot detect it when we are exposed to it. CO is tasteless and odorless, causes a myriad of non-specific complaints and at increasing levels leads to confusion and unconsciousness. Exposure to CO can come from several sources. In the winter, the most common source of exposure is malfunctioning heaters and furnaces. Any gas burning furnace, whether using natural gas, propane or another similar source, emit CO as a product of combustion and if not properly vented the furnace can off gas into living and working spaces. The rise of carbon monoxide detectors in residential and commercial building
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