Question for A&E Dr's or Ambulance drivers....

[Schmeeeee]

I've got a totally genuine and really random question that is often on my mind....

If a women happens to be on her period, is wearing a tampon and finds herself injured enough to be incapacitated or requires emergency attention so quickly she can't talk much, does anyone check down there to see if she's wearing a tampon? I'm just curious as to what the chances are that a woman could develop toxic shock syndrome due to a tampon being left in for too long or forgotten about. Is there some kind of rule that medical staff always check to see if a woman is on her period? And what happens if the woman goes into surgery or is placed in a coma? Does someone take responsibility for changing her sanitary protection?

Told you it was random!

If you’re unconscious, the chances are you’ll get a catheter, urine output is really important. While they’re down there someone will spot the string. HTH

And they’re not ambulance drivers.

Thank you. That does make sense. I've not had a catheter before, but have had a couple surgeries so I didn't know if that was standard practice. Thanks for your reply.

No idea what the correct term is, but figured most people would understand what I meant

Paramedics? 🤷‍♀️

ive Wondered this often too - not so much due to toxic shock syndrome but mainly due to leaking.

What about a menstrual cup? Probably leak if early on but if it's the last day..

Waiting for the rage from the people who are not ambulance drivers… you’re very brave OP.

Someone's asked this on mn before and a nurse answered saying that if admitted this would be checked, often a catheter would be put in and then noticed and tampon removed and pad then used x

I sometimes I wonder something similar about contact lenses 🤣

To be fair, in many places there is now an ambulance driver ( with a different title which I can't remember) and a paramedic.
Sometimes no paramedic.
So the OP wasn't wrong

Lol, I have a 3yr old. I'm used to them being referred to as ambulance drivers. Didn't meant to offend anyone

Glad other people have already commented, but yes, we are paramedics with university degrees, not 'ambulance drivers'.

@Testng123
I had a bad accident many years ago-at the time I had a menstrual cup in. I was unconscious and put into an induced coma (and don't think it would have entered OHs head to tell them I had my mooncup in) but they did a full body scan and it was removed. Obviously not at the scene but I assume if you're going to be incapacitated for a while they check for things like that at the hospital x

I wondered about unusual piercings and MRI.

Anything metal is removed from the patient and MRI's are not really the first type of imaging used in trauma, it would be a CT where it doesn't matter so much although it could cause artefacts on the images.

If you’re on your period, the nurses will change your pad after freshening you up a bit. It’s really not something anyone would bat an eyelid at.

They care for an unconscious/incapacitated patient as if they were awake and verbal. Same if your gown is soiled or your feet are cold. They do everything for you as if you’d do it yourself. Including brushing your teeth and your hair. And they do talk to you as if you could hear and ‘warn’ you: I’m just going to brush your hair, or we’re going to turn to to one side etc.

I think loss of control is scary, but rest assured, they’re all there to help you with every tiny detail.

Not quite the same but similar- I have a relative who cannot hear without hearing aids. He was in a nasty road accident during covid and nobody was allowed to the hospital with him and his hearing aids were smashed up in the accident.

He was put into an induced coma, they tried to bring him out of it a few times but for them to be happy to bring him out of it completely he needed to follow some verbal instructions. He couldn’t follow verbal instructions because he couldn’t hear and he couldn’t tell them that because of the ventilator tube.

Luckily when family were being told about this over the phone they asked if he had any hearing aids in and that solved the problem and some were taken to the hospital.

I really worry about how it is for deaf people who don’t have family to advocate for them in these scenarios.

That all sounds very reassuring. Thankfully I've never been in a situation to require any of that, but am genuinely in awe of what nurses and Dr's do

That's very scary! I wonder if there is a bracelet kind of thing dead people could wear (similar to the allergy tag bracelets some people do) that could warn medical staff in a situation like that

*deaf!!!! FFS of all the typos

Omg I never thought of this one before 🤓

Op, you've just offended every single paramedic or EMT on the country....

@NippyWoowoo you can see contact lenses on looking at the eyes for pupil dilation. You can remove them there and then if the patient is going to icu in a coma.

OP I have often wondered this too. @BuddhaAtSea thanks for answering!

Fair enough OP should have said paramedics but to cut them some slack it was obviously not intended to be derogatory.