Several days ago we were brought a patient who was desatting to the 50s and was revived with 10 liters of oxygen by mask with a wean to 2 liters, blowing through two of our oxygen tanks in the process. Reduced breath sounds on the right. Patient was 15 years old. Nearly lost him.
We placed a mask on him and ourselves and rapidly transferred him to the hospital. Days later we discovered he was strongly suspected to have had community acquired MDR-TB. We breathed a sigh of relief we took the proper precautions.
One of the things we have noticed with the majority of responders is failure to enact infection control standards we would use at home. I have seen countless times where responders are examining a patient without a mask, gloves, or observance of proper universal precautions likely due to available resources, discomfort due to heat, and other factors. This is an environment of high risk for responders due to potential exposure to a wide variety of pathogens. Good infection control practice is recommended.
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