Anyone medical awake?

[Peppermintpatty56]

I’m writing here because I’m not sure what to do. My dh has been out with friends and he’s clearly broken his hand. It’s a rare night out, not a regular occurrence, no drink problems etc. but he’s definitely had more than a few tonight and managed to fall over. His hand is swollen and so are his fingers including his wedding ring finger, can’t get the ring off. His little finger looks at a weird angle but that might be due the swelling. I’ve iced it, he’s had ibuprofen and paracetamol but he’s fell asleep now. Anyone medical know if it’s safe to leave for a few hours whilst he sleeps himself sober a bit? Obviously we will go to minor injuries when it opens tomorrow morning. Are we ok till then? What a pillock 🙄🫣

One ring removed by the fire service, two broken fingers- luckily appears to be quite straight forward breaks, nothing needs resetting. He's got a glove thingy on and a follow up organised with a virtual fracture clinic who'll go through the X-rays and decide if anything else needs doing. But they seemed hopeful it'll be straight forward when healing.
Dh is very sheepish.

This is horrendous advice- lying about not being drunk is dangerous. If they needed to give him medication or surgery they could kill him or make him seriously ill!

Hopefully, they won't need to intervene anymore, and he can learn from this... He'll be on best behaviour for a while!

@LBFseBrom

Take him to A&E, get him to clean teeth and use some mouthwash first so he doesn't smell of alcohol; they will treat him regardless but at least it won't be in his notes that he had been drinking.

Please don't give this advice to anyone again, it's genuinely dangerous.

It's absolutely crucial medical staff know if a patient has had alcohol so they can treat them appropriately and prescribe only the correct medication / anaesthesia. It could harm or even kill someone if they aren't told the patient has alcohol in their system.

Madness to lie about it.

And having it in your notes that you were drunk when you had an accident that only affected yourself isn't something to worry about at all, I'm unsure why you think it would be?

Re not disclosing alcohol consumption, surely if someone arrives in A+E unconscious or out of on the the GCS score and they are in need of anaesthesia or pain relief etc., the medics will test for drugs/alcohol in the system?

Anyone conscious can lie about it and probably do all the time.

A blood/urine test can be done to confirm alcohol levels and drug use or abstinence in other settings. Just saying....

I once came home to find my partner googling 'what should I do about this pain in my chest?'

Idiots. 🙄

You can lie but in an emergency there won't always be time to get bloods back before administering something will there? I have epilepsy and I know that if I had a tonic clonic in A&E my emergency meds would be administered before any tests were done if the seizure wasn't stopping.

Proactively lying about alcohol consumption (especially when it's not a crime to have got drunk and done something silly) is madness.

in nearly 20 yrs as an anaesthetist (intubating/supporting patients in ED fairly frequently) i can think of zero times we've done an alcohol level and zero times a drugs screen has been useful (or come back in a timeframe that would be helpful). There's only a short number of drugs that have antidotes for the people who come in properly obtunded. For all the others you just treat the syndrome it presents with and time does the rest. For most people you assume they've got a stomach full and if they need sedation/anaesthesia factor that into the plan.

Anyone who thinks a bit of toothpaste and mouthwash will disguise a gut full of booze is a halfwit - it's usually barn door obvious!

I'm glad he's got it sorted x

Not to mention you can hit them with a bit of naloxone if you suspect opioid OD and watch them spring to (very combative) life! My first ever successful naloxone administration was a big surprise. 🥊