fandomhigh | First Aid (Fandom Style), Friday, Period 3

"Let's talk about what to do if you don't recognize the problem. Your patient has a rash, but it's blue. They're not human, and their anatomy is really different. They were bitten by a radioactive spider, or their problem is caused by a magic spell. If you're unfamiliar with these issues, you may not be sure what to do, and that's okay. There's stuff even the most seasoned ER doc doesn't know.

"The first step is, obviously, not to panic. Take a deep breath. Take a moment, if you need to, and to the extent you can without endangering your patient's life. One time when I was in med school, things went badly wrong in the middle of surgery and the attending walked out of the room, scrubbed out, and then scrubbed back in and came back five minutes later and fixed the problem cool as a cucumber, because he'd taken those five minutes to gather his thoughts and figure out what to do, and that's stuck with me.

"Next, act like it's normal. I don't mean act like you know what you're doing. If your patient is lucid you can ask them all the questions you want about, 'Hey is your heart normally where a human kidney would be?' because hopefully they know better than you, but that blue rash? Don't freak out about it at your patient. It's just going to make them feel bad, and also doubt your ability to help them. Also, proceeding as you would otherwise is never the worst idea. Okay, so the rash is blue. Treat it like you would a rash that wasn't blue until you receive information that makes you change course. Radioactive spider bite? Find out how radioactive it is, obviously, and then treat it like a spider bite and, if indicated, radiation poisoning. It might not be the perfect course of action, but it'll get you farther than standing around doing nothing.

"What else do you think is important to keep in mind when the situation turns out to be not quite what you expected?" Don asked his students. "Let's discuss."