Equipment(Brain) Malfunction
This just proves there is always a new chapter.
I checked out my monitor the other day, doing a quick eyeball, BP cuff, monitor leads before checking the battery, doing the user test, and then opening up the back and top compartments for check for electrodes, 12-lead connections, capnography filters, spare paper and defib pads. Everything looks good.
Then later on a chest pain call, I asked my partner to put the patient on the monitor.
Small problem, she said.
Seems we were missing part of the cable. (We had the leads, but not the connection that attaches to the monitor. Someone had pulled these two pieces, which are rarely detached from each other, apart, and then misplaced the cable connection piece.)
I ended up having to put the defib pads on the patient to get a strip.
"Don't be concerned by these pads I'm putting on your chest," I told the patient. "Strictly routine, strictly routine."
He didn't look convinced.
