Updates

Well I walked into the hospital this morning to discover that patient #1 from yesterday died about an hour before I got there. No one told me when I showed up and he was still in his bed so I was shocked when I went to examine him and realized he was dead. About 3 hours later I saw the people come by to put (more like drag) him into this strange coffin-like thing on wheels. It was really quite disturbing and shook me up a lot.

Meanwhile, the other kid who had herbicide poisoning looked much better this morning. He was awake and a bit confused still but able to walk around. He had an EKG which showed a really prolonged QTc (560) most likely do to his hypocalcemia and hypokalemia and we struggled all morning to acquire him some calcium which ultimately we had to take from the private wing of the hospital (they had plenty). We also couldn't exactly follow his EKG despite his significantly irregular pulse because his relatives refused (or were unable) to pay for the EKGs. He also complained of severe epigastric pain and throat pain likely due to the caustic nature of the herbicide. After looking up 2,4-D amine, it appears that many survivors have neurologic deficits and given his significant neuro abnormalities (hypertonia and abnormal reflexes and ataxia), I'm concerned for him in this regard.