we had a young patient that came in about 2 weeks ago... he was sitting up and talking to us, but in acute heart failure with critical aortic stenosis.
he became hypotensive... the aortic stenosis wasn't allowing enough blood out, which made his heart more ischemic, which made his hypotension worse, which made his heart failure worse... it spiraled down and down.
there was nothing we could do.
we exhausted all of our options.
we all go into this field in an effort to make a difference, to save people. what do you do with medicine fails you... when you can offer no options... when you're sitting there after the fact replaying every decision trying to find a way to have approached it differently?
how do you approach a family in tears as they watch their loved one, while watching the BP monitor as it spirals down towards death? how do you accept their thanks when you felt like you've done nothing and could do nothing?
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