Shocking: 34 year old Ed Aschoff passes away

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I don't think we do a good enough job in general of teaching people what things should be a sign that someone is in extremis, whether in the ER when discharging patients or even in general ed classes, like health class in high school.

He said mentions thinks like having trouble walking. He should have been back at the ER right then, which was like three weeks ago. By the time he is having trouble walking, his body isn't compensating well, either to dehydration or extreme pulmonary consolidation from the pneumonia.

It no doubt didn't help that ERs in LA (and most urban areas) are disaster areas and he probably didn't feel well enough to go there and wait 19 hours for help.

I’m as clueless as you. Bacteria is serious stuff. It’s under control and then it isn’t. We do know that he continued working. That didn’t help. The thing about bacteria is, once you go into a dive, it can be very difficult to stabilize.
 

Swamp Donkey

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It could have been viral pneumonia too. I just doubt he couldn't have been handled with sufficient fluid support, the right antibiotics if it was bacterial etc. Little doubt in my mind he could have pulled through. It's just sad because he was likely trying to tough it out.

We had a similar thing with a vet friend of mine recently, who ironically worked in a hospital (though in a support position). He just wanted to tough it out and overlooked obvious signs that he was beginning to decompensate.
 

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It could have been viral pneumonia too. I just doubt he couldn't have been handled with sufficient fluid support, the right antibiotics if it was bacterial etc. Little doubt in my mind he could have pulled through. It's just sad because he was likely trying to tough it out.

We had a similar thing with a vet friend of mine recently, who ironically worked in a hospital (though in a support position). He just wanted to tough it out and overlooked obvious signs that he was beginning to decompensate.

He was on antibiotics. That indicates it was bacterial.
 

Swamp Donkey

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It doesn’t matter who gave it to him. Viral does not respond to antibiotics. Bacterial does.
And he is dead. So........it doesnt appear to have responded.
 

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And he is dead. So........it doesnt appear to have responded.

That has no bearing on the answer. His immune system was overwhelmed by the infection.

Ever hear of sepsis?
 

Swamp Donkey

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That has no bearing on the answer. His immune system was overwhelmed by the infection.

Ever hear of sepsis?
Which is exactly why I was mostly discussing fluid therapy, likely what would have gotten him through it if hospitalized while his young immune system eventually responded (bacterial or not). What is your point?

Too many ERs are staffed with people who cannot recognize patients in extremis. They look at a lab test or two, check a box and send them home without actually evaluating the patient before them. It was the first thing you tried to do as an instructor, get them to look at the damn patient, not the numbers.
 

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Unrelated comment. The Gatorchatter app sucks. I changed back to Tapatalk in the middle of this.
 

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