asystole then DC

[nurse2033]

Had a funny thing happen the other day. A young woman came in for some vague complaints of weakness. It was busy and some nurse not from our department was starting an IV and really digging around. I went in to talk with the patient and the monitor was right in front of my face. I noticed her rhythm slow, then she had 13 seconds of asystole! Her eyes rolled back as I put the back of the bed down and I shook her pretty hard and yelled at her. She gave a big jerk then woke up and said "what happened"? Her boyfriend then tells us, "oh yeah she always passes out when they start IVs". The funniest part was that the MD was chapped he couldn't find precanned discharge instructions for asystole. God I love this job...

[murphyle, BSN, RN]

I cannot for the life of me imagine sending the girl in this case home. In my department, that kind of incident would buy her an automatic night in CCU and a full cardio workup. Who only knows what kind of electrophysiological gremlins might be lurking in there...

I do admit to laughing at the MD's frustration at not finding a canned discharge for cardiac arrest. "If your heart stops again, return to the Emergency Center immediately."

[StrwbryblndRN]

A old friend (not a nurse) would pass out with sharp pain. From IV's to stepping on toes. Anything sharp. Then she

would have a seizure 10-15 seconds later. This is her baseline and has been this way since she was a child. No workups are done since she was a child. Everything comes up as negative. So she just deals with it.

[ZippyGBR, BSN, RN]

i'm really suprised this patient wasn't admitted to a monitored bed at the very least ... a 13 second pause is big news what is her QT and QTc intervals - i would suspect that she is at risk from sudden adult death syndrome and may need further investigation and intervention ....