Abstract
[This is an excerpt.] It was a typically busy Wednesday night. We had 22 people in the waiting room, with admitted patients boarding in the emergency department (ED) due to difficulties with bed availability and staffing. At 3:40 a.m. an 80-year-old woman arrived from a skilled nursing facility after staff found her unresponsive. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) discovered her to be pulseless and in asystole, and after 4 rounds of epinephrine in the field, she arrived in room 2 of my ED. As she was a “full code,” I intubated her and initiated resuscitation measures. A bedside echo revealed cardiac standstill and after 2 more rounds of epinephrine, calcium chloride, and bicarbonate infusion, she was pronounced dead. After a moment of silence, I attempted to contact family members, called the medical examiner and the organ bank, and began entering data required by our electronic health record (EHR). [To read more, click View Resource.]
