Author: Jordyn Redwood

Author Question: The Perfect Skull Fracture

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Ethan Asks:

I’m looking for the Goldilocks of skull fractures. My main character is a college age male that got into a fight. I’ve tried doing my own research but I’m second-guessing myself on which part of the skull to hit. I’m looking for a crack (not a shatter), minimal blood loss, he stays conscious for ten minutes or so, and a hospital stay of about five to seven days. I’m guessing there’s no way to avoid a concussion, as long as there’s no permanent brain damage I can work with it. Is such a skull fracture possible? If so, where on the skull?

Jordyn Says:

Yes, there is such a skull fracture that I think would fit your scenario perfectly.

In a small amount of cases, patients who receive an injury to the side of their head causing a fracture of the temporal bone can tear their middle meningeal artery causing an epidural bleed.

An epidural bleed/hematoma is considered a neurological emergency. Most of these patients will require surgery to save their lives. With epidural hematomas, the patient can have an initial loss of consciousness followed by a distinctive lucid period, and then worsening neurological status after that.

This article gives a nice overview of the condition and treatment for epidural hematomas. Also, this is a good article as well.

Hope this helps and best of luck with your story!

All the HIPAA Posts in One Place

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

This post will simply be a reference tool for authors. Since I have so many posts about HIPAA, the patient privacy act, I decided to put links all in one place for your convenience. This would be a great link to bookmark.

General Information Regarding HIPAA:

HIPAA Part One
HIPAA Part Two
HIPAA Part Three

Specific HIPAA Topics:

Law Enforcement and HIPAA
Disclosing Protected Health Information Under HIPAA
Disasters and HIPAA
HIPAA and Identity Thefts
Author Beware: Proof’s Problem with HIPAA
Modern Family: Disclosing Pregnancy Results
Author Beware: HIPAA— It’s no April Fools

Remember, in a novel it’s perfectly okay for a character to violate HIPAA. In fact, in might be preferred to increase the drama/conflict in your story. Just remember, they need to face consequences for their actions, or it should be made clear that other characters are aware that the action did violate this law. This ensures the reader knows that you’ve done your research.

Author Beware: HIPAA– It’s No April Fools

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

One of the biggest errors authors make in regards to writing about something medical is that their character violates HIPAA. HIPAA is a law that outlines a patient’s rights regarding their protected health information (PHI). I’ve blogged extensively on this topic and you can find these posts by following these links:

Author Beware: The Law: HIPAA  Part 1/3
Author Beware: The Law: HIPAA Part 2/3
Author Beware: The Law: HIPAA Part 3/3

HIPAA and Law Enforcement
Author Beware: Proof’s Problem with HIPAA
Disasters and HIPAA
Modern Family: S10/E7 Disclosing Pregnancy Results

The simplest way to explain a HIPAA violation is that someone accesses a patient’s information when they are not directly caring for that patient and/or discloses protected health information about a patient publicly.

Two recent stories have highlighted each of these scenarios.

The first involves actor Jussie Smollett and several dozens of hospital employees accused of viewing his medical information at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. They were all fired, reportedly some didn’t even open the chart, but just “scrolled by” it. The point is, with today’s technology and electronic medical records, it is very easy to determine who has accessed someone’s health information. It’s basically tracked electronically. Unless you are directly involved in caring for a patient, it is illegal for you to look at their information. I can’t even access my own children’s medical charts at the hospital where I work unless I go through the proper channels, which is signing a release for them through medical records.

The second, and perhaps more frightening case, is of the nurse who disclosed a toddler was positive for measles in the pediatric ICU where she worked and then posted about it to an anti-vaxxer group she belonged to on social media.

She didn’t give the patient’s name, sex, or exact age so she should be okay, right? Many times, people think this is a way to get around HIPAA and sometimes they can be right— it depends on the volume of such a diagnosis. For instance, if my ER sees 5,000 patients a day (which is insane– I don’t know any ER that can even possibly do this) and I say we saw a patient with a rash (and that’s it) then that doesn’t necessarily signify the one I might be talking about because there were probably dozens of patients seen with a rash that day with that volume of patients. However, I will also say this could still be considered a HIPAA violation, but let me further illustrate my point.

The more unique and rare a medical diagnosis is, the more easily it would be to identify a patient even without disclosing name, sex, or age and that is this nurse’s first problem. There was probably only one patient in the PICU that had a medical diagnosis of measles. It had likely been in the news that there were measles cases in Texas (this is frequently disclosed for the public good to encourage vaccinations), but the nurse’s information narrows down the hospital, the general age group, and just how sick he was. Then neighbors can start thinking, “Hey, we live close to Texas Children’s and I haven’t seen Billy (totally made up name) in a while and he’s a toddler—” and then phone calls go out to Billy’s mom asking if he has measles. See?

The frightening aspect of the scenario, from a purely pediatric standpoint is, that even after seeing how sick this child was, she remained an anti-vaxxer and even mused about taking a swab from the ill child’s mouth and attempting to give wild measles to her own child! For one, I consider this child abuse. I truly cannot fathom in my mind how this nurse believes giving her child the real thing is preferred over a vaccine that can prevent the entire illness.

**The safest thing for ANY healthcare worker is to not discuss their patients at home or on social media no matter how vague they try to make the scenario.**

It is also the safest thing for authors who are writing these scenarios. As I’ve always said, you can have a character that violates HIPAA in your novel, but they must face repercussions for it. The positive side of this is that it increases the conflict in your story automatically. It also shows the reader that you’ve done your research.

Author Question: Drug Dosing in Super Human Metabolism

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Racheal Asks:

I’d love to hear your thoughts on the topic of medicine and dosage within the context of someone with super-human levels of heightened metabolism. Obviously, the concept pushes the question dangerously towards completely fictional answers, but I’m hoping for any input you have at least in the abstract. For instance, would you give the patient more concentrated doses, more frequent doses, larger doses?  What kind of medicines would be prescribed/would correlate with the metabolism bit in context of painkillers and treatment of a gunshot wound?

Jordyn Says:

Regarding your question surrounding metabolism– I think both could be true that the patient may need to receive higher doses and be dosed more frequently depending on the half life of the drug. Fentanyl and Versed could be two of the drugs given for chest tube placement– one for pain and one so the patient doesn’t remember the procedure. These would be given if the patient is fairly stable with good blood pressure. You could look up these drugs and see how fast the peak. Peak time is when the patient will be under the full effects of the medication. From that, you could put in whatever metabolism rate you wanted (2X, 3X or faster) and be able to determine how much more quickly they would need to be redosed on the medication. Also, you could look at the drugs half-life. Half-life is when 50% of the drug is metabolized by your body. You could look at this number, factor in their sped up metabolism rate, to also know how frequently they might need the drug.

You can ususally research this on-line fairly easily by searching for drug information sheets. I’ve included one here for Fentanyl.

I thought this would be a great question to run by Sarah Sundin who is a fabulous author and real life pharmacist. I hope you check out her wonderful historical novels set during WWII.

Sarah Says:

A higher metabolism would lead to a higher clearance — shortening the half-life of the medication. That would mean increasing the frequency for dosing from every twelve hours to every eight hours or every six hours. Often that means an increase in dose as well. Of course, we have to clarify “metabolism.” Some drugs are cleared by the kidneys (renally) and some are cleared by the liver (hepatically) and most are a combination of both. Whatever function you speed up for your character would have to match the primary method by which that medication is cleared.

To research how a drug is metabolized in the body you would search for “pharmacokinetics of Fentanyl” as an example. These articles would help you determine by what method in the body the drug is cleared.

Hope this helps and good luck with your story!

Author Question: Details for Chest Tube Placement

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Rachael Asks:

I’m sure you get questions on this all the time, but I was wondering what insight you can provide on traumatic wounds. My project is science fiction and the characters in question have enhanced healing and a sped up metabolism which I’ve just been using as my cure-all, smooth-over for any inaccuracies thus far. But then I found your blog- which has been incredibly fascinating and entertaining.

The first question I had which led me here was in general for a gunshot wound to the chest though not involving the heart. Namely, the various potential complications, the meds, supplies, or procedures that may be employed, and the sorts of phrases and terminology and reactions that may be overheard from the staff working on the patient. I’ve read on the risks of things like a sucking chest wound and consequential lung collapse, punctured lung, of course blood loss, but I still am at a loss for particularly the things the medical staff on hand would be saying or doing. (Bonus points if you have any tips for the internal monologue for the victim besides “ow.”)

Jordyn Says:

Hi Racheal! Thanks for sending me our question.

Your question is hard to answer. You don’t give specifics of the injury though it looks like you’re leaning toward a collapsed lung. There are a couple of ways you can research the feel of an emergency and that is by watching reality based (non scripted) shows that center on emergency medicine or look for teaching videos (or live videos where they capture the procedure on a real patient on You Tube).

For instance, a patient with a collapsed lung will likely need a chest tube placement. You can search You Tube for “placement of a chest tube” and see what comes up. The below video is pretty good as it gives lots of technical detail on what the physician is doing, seeing, feeling, and even what medicines might be prescribed for the patient. However, it does lack a lot of language of what would be said to the patient during the procedure.

The next video shows more patient interaction and what might be said. Between these two videos you could probably extrapolate together a scene. I will say that typically patients are connected to a larger suction device, but what the below physician is connecting to looks to be a more portable device so the patient can be up and walking. Also, a patient with a tension pneumothorax who is crashing may not receive local anesthesia and may even be unconscious.

Your best option, once the scene is written, is have a medical person who actively is practicing in the field review it. If your scene is written from the POV of the doctor placing the tube, it would need to be more technical versus if you’re writing it from the POV of the patient. You can also search Google for patient experiences of having a chest tube placed to get a feel for the inner dialogue you’re looking for.

Hope this helps and good luck with your story!

Author Question: Causes of Respiratory Distress in a Ventilated Patient

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Terry Asks:

My question is what would make a person in a drug induced coma go into respiratory distress? My character is having really strange dreams/nightmares in his comatose state and I want to introduce a dark force (ie death), that is trying to take him. At the same time, in the hospital that dark force is actually a respiratory distress, but I can’t find any information on what would cause him to go into distress or how that would be handled by the doctors and nurses.

Image by Simon Orlob from Pixabay

Jordyn Says:

A patient in a medically induced coma will also be intubated (a tube inserted into the trachea to help the person breathe) and will be ventilated by a machine.

There is a pneumonic that most medical people run through when a person on a ventilator develops trouble breathing and it is the D.O.P.E. pneumonic. I first learned it in Pediatric Advanced Life Support (PALS) that is a class taught by the American Heart Association.

I’ll give you what they stand for and the medical treatment the nurse/doctor would take.

D: Dislodgement: Dislodgement means the tube is somewhere it shouldn’t be. The endotracheal tube (ETT) could be out of the patient (termed accidental extubation) or it could have migrated into the right bronchi thereby only ventilating one lung. If the tube is completely out (or sitting in the mouth— no longer in the trachea) then the patient would need to be reintubated. If the tube is in the right bronchi, it simply needs to be pulled back a little bit until there are breath sounds in both lungs and equal chest rise when the machine gives a breath. Often times, after measures are taken to correct the situation, a chest x-ray would be taken to verify the tube is in the right place.

O: Obstruction: Obstruction can mean a lot of things. It more commonly means that there are secretions in the ETT tube that need to be cleared. If that happens, they would be suctioned out. However, obstruction can also mean something like a developing pneumonia that may require increased settings on the ventilator and initiation of antibiotics. Ventilated patients are at high risk for developing pneumonia (if they don’t have it already).

P: Pneumothorax: This indicates that one lung has collapsed. Because the lung is deflated it can no longer be ventilated properly and is causing difficulty breathing. Treatment for a pneumothorax is placement of a chest tube to reinflate the lung. The patient should improve after the chest tube is placed, but it does take time for the lung to fully reinflate. Ventilated patients are also at risk for a collapsed lung, particularly if they are on pretty high ventilator settings.

E: Equipment Failure: This can mean something is wrong with the ventilator itself. It can be as simple as the machine became unplugged. Not all ventilators have battery back-up. If this is causing the patient to have respiratory distress, we simply take the patient off the ventilator and begin to bag the patient manually via the ETT until the problem can be sorted out.

Any of these situations can cause respiratory distress in a ventilated patient. It is your choice as the author which one to use.

Hope this helps and good luck with your story!

Author Question: Blood Types and Blood Transfusions

/ Jordyn Redwood / 2 Comments

Ryana Asks:

I want to do a story set in WWII and one of my climaxes is when a Jewish soldier gives blood to save a German soldier’s life (or vice versa). My question is this: do different races have different blood types? Like, do Jews have a blood type no one else has? I don’t want to do something medically incorrect just because I think my story is good.

Jordyn Says:

There are eight different blood types and all ethnicities/races can have one of these blood types though some are more prevalent in a race than others. Here is an interesting link where the Oklahoma Blood Institute looked at what blood types certain races were and their break down.

I think the harder part of your question is would these two soldiers, by chance, have the same blood type where it wouldn’t cause a life threatening reaction in the soldier receiving blood. I was able to Google this question and found this link. As you can see, the best odds are if both soldiers are O-positive and yet that random chance that both are the same blood type is only 38%. The next highest is if both are A-positive at 34%. The other blood types fall precipitously after that. Of course, if the soldier giving the blood is O-negative (this is the universal donor) then there should be no reaction regardless of what blood type the receiving soldier is. On the reverse side, the universal recipient (someone who can get anyone’s blood) is AB-positive.

It would actually increase conflict in your story if the soldier receiving blood DID have a transfusion reaction. This type of reaction would be called a hemolytic transfusion reaction. This article reviews some of the varied responses a patient can have. Of course, you’d have to consider the time frame of your piece and what treatment would have been available then.

Hope this helps and good luck with the story!

Author Question: Emergency Care of the Suicidal Patient

/ Jordyn Redwood / 2 Comments

Riannon Asks:

I’d really appreciate your help in answering some questions. I’ve Googled as much as possible, and I just can’t seem to find answers for some things.

At one point in a play I’m writing, a character attempts suicide. His goal is not actually to die, but he does go through the process. What happens is that he’s very drunk and it’s a combination of probably alcohol poisoning and a lot of pills, something relatively accessible lying around the house, but potentially lethal in a high dose and then he calls 911 right afterwards.

So my questions are:
1. Would he be allowed to have visitors the next day? Essential for plot reasons.
2. Would visitors have to be family members or something or would friends/acquaintances be able to fudge their way in?
3. Before someone visits a patient, is the patient told that they’re coming and who they are? (I have very little knowledge of how hospitals work.)
4. How screwed up would he be physically?
5. Would he have to be committed to psych, and if so, when?
6. What could he have overdosed on?

Jordyn Says:

Hi Riannon!

Thanks so much for sending me your questions.

1. Would he be allowed visitors the next day? Depends on where he is at in the process. I’ll give you the process a patient goes through at our hospital, but you might need to adapt it if your play is located in a specific town, state, etc.

When a patient comes in with a suicide attempt, they are placed on 1:1 observation. The patient must be “medically cleared” before they can participate in a mental health evaluation. What that means is that they are no longer in danger medically from what they ingested AND that they are clear mentally to participate in the process. For instance, our patients would have to be below the legal limit for alcohol in order to participate. During the time of medical clearance and during the mental health evaluation (as for pediatrics parents are involved in the process) the patient is allowed to have visitors. A limited number. We try to keep it to two at a time and generally only immediate family.

If the patient is deemed to be a danger to themselves and does not voluntarily consent to treatment, then they are placed on an M1-Hold. This will have different names in different areas, but it is a legal document where the patient is involuntarily committed to a mental health institution for stabilization for about three days. Most mental health facilities will strictly limit visitors and may not let anyone visit during the initial 24-48 hours. Depends on the facility.

2. Could family/friends fudge their way in? I think I’ve mostly answered this above. If the patient is at a mental health hospital probably not without inside help. These are generally locked facilities that will keep a close eye on who is coming and going.

3. Is the patient notified of visitors? I can give you the ER answer and that is it depends. If the patient is unconscious then probably not. If the patient is conscious then we do want to inform the patient of who is there, but we would likely keep it to immediate family. We don’t want to inflame an already volatile situation so if the patient would become harmful to themselves or others then visitors are restricted. Pediatric patients will sometimes try and not have their parents visit, but parents are part of the process, so we encourage them to be at the bedside as long as the patient can be safe.

4. How screwed up would he be physically? Depends on a lot of factors. What he took. How much he took. And how long before he sought medical care.

5. Would he be committed to psych? If so, when? Yes, in this instance, he would be committed involuntarily if he did not agree to a voluntary admission. This would happen once he’s medically stable and after his mental health evaluation. Sometimes, patients may not be medically cleared for 12-24 hours (sometimes longer depending on the drug’s half life). Then we have to wait for an available mental health counselor which can take an additional 3-6 hours. Then waiting for placement could be another 3-24 hours. It can be a very lengthy process. Mental health beds are not that easy to find at times. Patients are held in the ER until they have a bed placement. It is also a requirement of our hospital that patients be transported by ambulance to their mental health facility and generally family members are not allowed to ride in the ambulance with them. This is a safety concern for the EMS crew.

6. What could he have overdosed on? This is really up to you as the author. Any drug can be toxic given in enough quantities and alcohol ingestion on top of that can make things much worse. Some of the more common medications most people have at home that can become easily toxic, in my opinion, would be acetaminophen (Tylenol), aspirin, and diphenhydramine (Benadryl).

Hope this helps and best of luck with your novel!

Author Question: Multiple Survivable Stab Wounds

/ Jordyn Redwood / Leave a comment

Joseph Asks:

I am writing a story inspired by the Saw franchise in which a man is forced to stab himself with three Swiss army knives. The knives will remain in. For the best chance of survival, should all the stabs be in the lower abdomen, or also bladder and/or hands/forearms?

I’ve heard the hands, forearms and lower abdomen are the three safest places to survive a stabbing, although of course technically there is no safe place, but those three areas avoid major organs/arteries/blood vessels. Though I’ve also heard stab wounds to the extremities i.e. hands can cause lasting disabilities. Where should he stab himself and how long until he is expected to die? He will be able to call an ambulance immediately, and maybe could use some cloths nearby to help put pressure on the wounds, assuming the pain is not debilitating.

Jordyn Says:

Hi Joseph!

Thanks for sending me your question.

I would agree with most of your assumptions as far as the extremities in general and the lower abdomen. You don’t include the legs. I think another relatively *safe* area would be the front of the thigh into the muscle or the back of the calf. Anywhere in the extremities where there is a large muscle mass. You could browse anatomy pictures of the extremities looking for diagrams of where the arteries are located to make sure you avoid them.

The lower abdomen is a good choice as well for suvivability. The problem can be puncturing the intestines and spilling gastric contents into the the abdominal cavity. If this happens, this can set up infection and sepsis though this would take a couple of days. You mention in your question that your character will be able to call for an ambulance immediately, not sure if that’s what you intended to say, as a delay in calling for an ambulance would definitely increase the conflict in your story.

Next to bleeding out, developing infection and sepsis would be the greatest risk of death for this character, but would likely take 2-3 days to develop.

Any stab wound to the hands or feet could be a set up for a life long debilitating injury. Many of these can be repaired, but I personally ruptured a tendon in my hand over twenty years ago and have limited range of motion to that thumb. The decision to make as the author is what, if any, long lasting effects you want the character to suffer.

Hope this helps and best of luck with you novel!

 

Author Beware: Doctors Cannot Do Everything

/ Jordyn Redwood / 3 Comments

I was recently reading a YA novel (that I did really enjoy BTW) when I came across this passage. For a quick background, this young girl has just woken up screaming after being involved in a car accident so it’s presumed she has a head injury.

The passage is as follows from the novel:

The room fills up with people. Two nurses and a doctor appear as quickly as if I’d pushed the little red call button on my bed. 

“Sophie, I’m Dr. Langstaff. You’re in a safe place and I’m here to help you.” The doctor holds a syringe and a container, measuring out a clear liquid. “I’m going to give you some medicine to calm you down and help you sleep.” He inserts the syringe so the medicine flows into my IV. It drains the screams right out of me, like he’s pulled the plug on my lungs.

Interestingly, there are quite a few problems with this small passage.

1. There is a process to giving medications in the hospital. The doctor orders the medication, the pharmacy double checks and approves the dosage, and the nurse draws it up and gives it to the patient. This patient is on a medical surgical floor— this is the process that would take place.

2. Doctors generally don’t have access to sedatives or narcotics. There are only a few areas in the hospital where a doctor would have direct access to these types of medications that they could pull themselves and that would be anesthesia. Narcotics are very tightly controlled. Doctors generally can’t even access narcotics or sedatives via the medication dispensing machines on the floor— even those medications that only they can give (such as perhaps Ketamine for a sedation). This is not the “old” days where a doctor carried around a stock of medications he could dispense. Nowadays, they likely can’t even access them.

3. Sedatives generally aren’t the first choice for a distressed patient.  I think for writers, this idea comes from watching too many bad television hospital dramas, but in real life is rarely done. The first step in handling a patient that first wakes up from a traumatic event is to orient them to where they are and what’s happened. Involve the family in helping them feel safe. If the distress continues, evaluate if there is a medical reason behind it. Is there some undiagnosed medical problem? Does she need a repeat scan of her head? It really is unusual that you can’t calm a person down— even one with a head injury. Patients are generally only given sedation if they become physically harmful to themselves or others. We do use sedation in some of these situations, but not as a first line and not as often as you might think and most likely not in the head injured patient.

What are some other things you’ve seen in books that aren’t accurate as far as a hospital setting goes?