There seems to be a run of female patients being brought in by friends or ambulance for problems related to over-indulgence in alcohol. Similar to the patient I reported on recently who couldn't believe that alcohol alone would cause her to be unconscious at her sorority, many of these are college-age women...
...like the female patient who returned today to find out about culture results from a urine specimen obtained the night she was brought in by the local police, drunk, an alcohol level of 0.17. I dutifully reported the results.
The young woman asked me if I could tell her the names of the officers who were with her that night. I told her we don't usually document that, but if she told me what they looked like, maybe I would know.
"They were wearing police uniforms."
I think drinking is the least of this college student's concerns...
+++
And for all those who don't believe that obesity is a growing problem (no pun intended), check out the recent article in the NY Times that discusses the need to build different EMS equipment to accomodate large patients...gurneys and ambulances designed to lift and transport patients up to 1600 pounds.
These devices usually cost about 40% more than regular equipment built to accomodate patients within a normal range.
If only obese patients were paying for this extra service, that would be one thing. But all of us pay via the increased cost of service equipment. This means that all of us are disadvantaged by other peoples' poor health and poor eating habits.
Just like with smokers. And I don't see anyone willing to pay more for Smoking versus Non-smoking ambulances!
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