NEWS: You See, He Was "Mostly" Dead

CULTURE: You See, He Was "Mostly" Dead

A man was wrongly declared dead after a traffic accident in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Emergency Medical Technicians had declared 29 year old Larry D. Green dead after a car hit him. Green's injuries were being documented hours later by medical examiner J.B. Perdue, when it was noticed that Green was breathing.

Green was taken to Duke University Medical Center in Durham, where he was in critical condition.

Several Franklin County Emergency Medical Center members have been suspended pending an investigation.

Wouldn't you be glad that someone noticed in time that you were still breathing? And that they didn't start the autopsy?

you have to wonder what happened to any still-living people whose breathing wasn't noticed...

they probably just died. or maybe they were discovered when they went for a y-incision and the blood started pumping out of them

i'm supposed to be going to NC, now i really don't want to have an accident while i'm there...

you're envious of the medical system in north carolina!

if i'm ever in an accident i hope that i can speak up to say "i'm not dead, yet!"

Gross! Since I'm doing some time in the medical examiner's office as a student I am totally horrified!

We did have a case a couple days ago, some guy shot himself in the head and granted this would appear to be 100% fatal but it's really not. Anyway the paramedics or whoever called the ME's office to come pick him up even though he was still breathing. Unbelieveable!!!

wasn't there a CSI like that?!!

are they sure he wasn't a zombie? or a vampire? or an immortal? you see, i think i've seen this movie before...

i'm glad they did notice I heard that autopsy's tickle

I don't know how N.C. works but here in Massachusetts EMT's and Paramedics can't "declare" anyone dead. We aren't doctors! We work as an extension of a doctor's licence and actually have a very limited sope of practice (here in Mass. at any rate.) Generally speaking though there are criteria in which someone is judged to be "obviously" dead. They are called "signs of obvious death" funny enough.
1.)Rigor Mortis- Body all stiff like a board
2.)Dependent Lividty- all the bodily fluids pool at the lowest point of the body, so they are all purply on one side, and literally drained of all color on the other
3.)Putrefecation- when they start to rot
4.) Obvious mortal damage- when most of their head has been taken off or their heart has been ripped out a la Temple of Doom.

So if I came across an accident victim, and they weren't breathing I wouldn't go "Oh well they're dead, let's go to Denny's for some Twisters", I would work the motherfucker. Again I don't know the whole story here but it would have to be some pretty serious looking injuries to keep me from working a patient.

When/where? If you're in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area let us know and we'll treat you right.

That's possibly my worst nightmare. Especially if you could sense it but can't say "I'm not dead, leave me alone, keep that scalpel away goddamit!" Like those people who are conscious but incapacitated during aesthetic....

You know some people have this disease (I'm not making this up!! I PROMISE!) where they fall in a coma for no reason that anyone can find, and go into a hibernation or hypothermic like state. People with hypothermia have been mistaken for dead many times, so this small percentage of people have to be very careful. Their pupils dilate, their body temperature drops, and their breathing is very very shallow, only 4 or 5 breaths a minute, almost unnoticable. Their heart beat is faint and they are pale in some places, while blue-ish in others. I can't remember what it's called, and I tried googling it, but to no avail. It does exist though. That scares the hell out of me.

... i mean come guys, we are missing the most important untold point... what kind of cars were involved and how are they... geeze...

Yes! The whole "saved by the bell" origin. I love you for knowing that.

I've also heard of cases in which a person appears dead on all counts but just "wakes up" a half-hour, hour, or even day later. Scary stuff.

i dont care if the are obvious signs of death. i still hook the monitor up for paper work.
here if we find a patient that has been down for about 45 min and they are asystole in 2 leads of the monitor we can call the doctor have the doctor declare them dead.

[Edited on Jan 27, 2005 9:06AM]

Oh sure, our medics do that too. I'm just talking about stopping patient care in general, getting an intial assesment yadda yadda.

Your membername is my AIM screen name. Neat.

I feel happy....

But instances like this are also one of the reasons that people started having open casket wakes, yes?


[Edited on Jan 27, 2005 12:41PM]

Thus the need for a post mortem EKG.
Recently, we were having some remodeling done at my hospital, and the construction workers cut the power to the cooler in the morgue. We were without refridgeration for almost 48 hours. We have another cooler in the ER, but the smell of the main cooler after it heated up was indescribable.

it wasn't monty python, it was the princess bride...


i wonder if the medical examiner heard "to blathe..." or "true love" heh...

Also, remember if you have the "organ donor" label on your Driver's licence the EMT's are instructed to NOT try and save you because people need them kidneys

Oh Id be pissed.