Status Monitor
BP 90/55
Temp 38.1 oC
HR 125
RR 16

 

Early the next morning (day 9 in the ICU) the respiratory therapist calls you to see Mrs M urgently. Her peak airway pressure has risen acutely to 48 cm H2O and her oxygen saturation is dropping. When you assess her, she is sedated, hypotensive and tachycardic with an oxygen saturation of 88%. Listening to her chest, she has quiet breath sounds on the right side.

What would you do?

  1. Arrange an urgent V/Q scan
  2. Get a CXR
  3. Insert a chest tube on the right side
  4. Needle thoracentesis

 

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