Kooks

Last week, I talked about “Chief Complaint” and gave an example of a list of complaints from a Vietnamese woman. […]

When evaluating patients in the emergency department, we start with what is called “The Chief Compliant.” This is what the

I have been called a lot of names while caring for patients in the emergency department. Many of them are

A 40-year-old woman presented saying a man attacked her earlier in the day. He pulled her legs, kicked her back

A twenty-two-year-old woman was brought to the emergency department by her mother for “uncontrollable eye movements.” The patient said, “Every

A 35-year-old man came in saying, “I’m losing sperm every day.” He said it was because he was masturbating too

As a parent, I realize what a difficult job parenting is. Yet, at the hospital, I often see people who

A two-day-old baby who was brought to the emergency department for being “fussy.” As a newborn, the baby had been

Trying to avoid arrest for drug possession, some people will swallow the evidence. The police bring these suspects to the

Cursed to Die A 41-year-old woman came in complaining of feeling weak, unable to walk, having a dry mouth and

Impaled on a Fence 33-year-old man somehow fell onto the top of a fence and impaled himself just to the

The fontanelle is the “soft spot” on the top of a newborn baby’s head. It is where the bones of

A 30-year-old man was eating a Steak Burrito Supreme at Taco Bell when he suddenly got a sharp pain in

I had an interesting patient this last week: a lady I believe was bitten by a black widow spider. There

In medical school, they teach you about diseases. They teach you who is most likely to get a certain illness.

A patient has been visiting our emergency department a lot lately. He is a permanent resident of a psychiatric care

As in so many areas of the country, we have a lot of trouble with methamphetamine abuse. It was not

Quite a few people suffer from seizures because they have epilepsy. Other medical conditions can also cause seizures. For example,

A 35-year-old man was working for a tree trimming service. He was chipping tree branches when the chipper kicked back

When I approached a fifty-year old woman and asked her why she was had come to the emergency department, she

Steven McFall was a 27-year-old man who slipped when he was climbing out of the swimming pool. He went down,

Bad Idea 1 A 36-year-old man drank five beers then climbed up into a tree house at 10:00 at night.

I was doing my emergency medicine training in New Orleans. The nurse called me to see a teenage girl who

A 26-year-old man was brought to the emergency department by his aunt. He said he had trouble sleeping and, because

Unfortunately, a lot of the sad things I witness in my job come about because of alcohol abuse. Here are

Poop 1 A 33-year-old man was brought in by his family because of bizarre behavior. They said he had a

Mr. Rodriguez was 38-years-old. He slipped and fell on the floor of his house and was unable to get up.

What? Me? Stabbed? A 27-year-old woman said she woke up in bed with 9 stab wounds. She said she had

A couple of weeks ago, my postings were about Customer Service complaints. Here is another complaint that came to me

Here are four stories of crazy things crazy people said they swallowed. A 38-year-old man came in complaining of heavy