Family Google expert, MD

Published

Soo, has anyone else been seeing an influx of overnight doctors that interfere with patients care? In our CVICU, I've been seen the wildest requests from not turning a vented pt whatsoever, not even to clean a bm because google said it can cause more damage. Or not suctioning a vented pt, again because google said it causes more harm than good, or better yet, requesting ambien 10mg bid to wake someone up from a coma or demanding some abscure treatment because google said that it turns aches and pains into unicorn dust.

For the most part, I try to respect pt and their family wishes, but you better believe that I'm suctioning a pt whose drowning in their own secretions.

Id love to hear some crazy treatments/refusals insisted on based off of a family members "research".

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I wanna add, I try to get to the root of these requests/refusals because it's definitely a teaching opportunity, but the ones I listed above, family wasn't having any part of it and still insisted things be done a certain way.

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Yeah, the new phrase that makes me really cringe (when I hear it all the time) is, "Well, I read on the Internet that ..." It wasn't a refusal of treatment, but I was really struck by the level of denial in a father who was having difficulty grasping that his precious little princess college student daughter was a roaring alcoholic and in DT, who asked me couldn't it be the Ativan she had been given (for the withdrawal) that was causing her agitation and hallucinations, because it said on the Internet that agitation and hallucinations could be side effects of Ativan. It wasn't humorous, though, it was just truly sad. He was so desperately grasping at straws trying to come up with some explanation for the situation other than what it was ...

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Level one: Wikipedia Community College grad:

- heh... can you'guys just FIX'ED that? My mom's heart, I mean? Some pill or... that device that pushes it... somehow... like in that movie... Graves' Anatomy, it was? I saw it being done there! Can you do it here?

Level two: Google MD:

- I'd seen it somewhere on Internet... the heart just pushes blood 'round and 'round, yeah? And if you kinda make it easier, then it is kinda makes easier for it to work too... I hear that... so, that's why my mom has to take her blood pressure and that pee-pee pill, so she has less water in her system and her pressure stays low, am I right?

Level Three: Dr. Oz School of Medicine Cum Laude Proud Grad:

- I'd heard that alcohol makes blood vessels wider for a while after you drink it. That's why one feels warm all over after taking a shot. But if blood vesssels get wider, then blood pressure got to go down, yes? So, doesn't it makes sense for my mom to take a couple of shots of whiskey a day? That would low her blood pressure, and her heart will have les work to do. Well... maybe a little more than a couple... it only works for a couple of hours, yeah? So, shouldn't she drink a bit of whiskey every couple of hours then?

The working classification of homemade medicine experts we developed for our unit. It works great!

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Specializes in ICU, LTACH, Internal Medicine.

Level one: Wikipedia Community College grad:

- heh... can you'guys just FIX'ED that? My mom's heart, I mean? Some pill or... that device that pushes it... somehow... like in that movie... Graves' Anatomy, it was? I saw it being done there! Can you do it here?

Level two: Google MD:

- I'd seen it somewhere on Internet... the heart just pushes blood 'round and 'round, yeah? And if you kinda make it easier, then it is kinda makes easier for it to work too... I hear that... so, that's why my mom has to take her blood pressure and that pee-pee pill, so she has less water in her system and her pressure stays low, am I right?

Level Three: Dr. Oz School of Medicine Cum Laude Proud Grad:

- I'd heard that alcohol makes blood vessels wider for a while after you drink it. That's why one feels warm all over after taking a shot. But if blood vesssels get wider, then blood pressure got to go down, yes? So, doesn't it makes sense for my mom to take a couple of shots of whiskey a day? That would low her blood pressure, and her heart will have les work to do. Well... maybe a little more than a couple... it only works for a couple of hours, yeah? So, shouldn't she drink a bit of whiskey every couple of hours then?

The working classification of homemade medicine experts we developed for our unit. It works great!

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