The Case Still Bothers Me
A patient mystery I never understood was a healthy 23-year-old male. He came into the ER with chest pain that started after eating something spicy.
We check his vitals, do an X-ray, and are about to discharge him when he collapses lifeless. We start CPR and get a pulse. He was stable for a CT scan but doesn’t survive the procedure. The team was baffled. During the autopsy, it was revealed his major blood vessels basically just imploded.
This sometimes, though rarely, happens to men in their 70s with a long smoking history and high blood pressure, but this patient had zero risk factors and was a non-smoker. This was a few years ago but the case still bothers me. crazycarl1