"When many cures are offered for a disease, it means the disease is not curable" -Anton Chekhov
''Once you tell people there's a cure for something, the more likely they are to pressure doctors to prescribe it.'' -Robert Ehrlich, drug advertising executive.
"Opinions are like sphincters, everyone has one." - Chris Rangel
Dilemma: This came up today. A patient in the early second trimester of pregnancy presented to the emergency room needing admission for a purely medical, non-obstetric problem. Normally, this would be a no-brainer. The emergency room would call an obstetrician. The nurses on a regular medical floor are neither trained nor equipped to handle pregnant women, and I haven't taken care of a pregnant woman since residency. BUT, this patient has a termination scheduled in two weeks. Do we pretend that the pregnancy doesn't exist since it's not wanted and send her to the regular medical floor? Or do we send her to the obstetrics floor under the care of an OB/GYN like every other pregnant woman?
After some discussion, the emergency room doctor and I opted for the latter. 1) The obstetrician is better at handling complications that might arise from being sick and pregnant and 2) The patient might have a change of heart in the next two weeks and blame us if something happens to the baby. posted by Sydney on
9/24/2005 07:51:00 PM
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