I had a student come into my office. Audible wheeze, stating she needed to use her inhaler. Thought it was in her backpack, not there. No inhaler at school. Called mom, left a message, called dad, told him we needed an inhaler. She started to hyperventilate (RR 56). 02 from 98-100, congestion in the lower lobes. Pale coloring, no blue color though.
Called dad back, he said he was 15-20 minutes away. Told him I would continue to monitor but if she got worse I would need to call 911.
She was unable to talk in between breaths. And pantomimed that she felt her throat was closing. Said she felt light-headed and dizzy and would not, could not slow down her breathing. 02 still fine.
Call 911. EMS comes. Takes VS, they're all fine, O2 is 100. Put her on oxygen take her down. Paramedic gets there does her thing. EMS basically tells dad it's an anxiety attack, not an asthma attack and she'll be OK, EMS says lungs are clear, but she's got a bad cough.
They still take her out on the ambulance to be fully evaluated.
I know I can only go on my assessment and I could not get her calmed down, but I'm second guessing whether I should have called 911 or waited a few minutes until dad got there (not knowing how long it would actually have taken).
I just feel like there wasn't a good decision that I could make.
