We will regularly publish articles that deal with real life cases, leaving you to contemplate what sort of actions you would take if you were on-scene. What would you do?

A 29-year-old old man was working with others at a construction site. The workers encountered a beehive, and the man was stung several times by a large number of swarming bees. Immediately after this, he commented to co-workers that, in addition to the pain of the stings, he just wasn’t feeling well. He complained of lightheadedness, weakness and nausea.

The others elected to load the man into a truck and drive five miles to the nearest hospital. The man began to feel worse. He complained of increased weakness and nausea as well as some difficulty breathing. The driver of the truck decided to stop at a local convenience store to contact 9-1-1 and await the arrival of an ambulance.

As the workers pulled in to the parking lot, the man became unresponsive. As one co-worker called for help, the others recognized the injured man wasn’t breathing and didn’t seem to have a pulse. They considered pulling him out of the vehicle to perform CPR, but left him inside because a severe thunder and lightning storm had developed, making outside working conditions hazardous.

The patient was found still in the vehicle by arriving EMS crews. He was pulseless and apneic. Crews quickly removed him — in the very heavy rain — and placed him in an ambulance. CPR was initiated. The cardiac rhythm was asystole. Epinephrine and atropine was administered, and the patient was successfully intubated. Ventricular fibrillation was noted, but the patient didn’t respond to defibrillation at a dose of 200J biphasic. Asystole recurred and CPR continued, and the patient was transported to the hospital.

En route, the EMS crew noted the patient had no obvious physical abnormalities. He had no rash and no evidence of any facial or airway swelling. Additionally, there was no sign of the multiple bee stings reported by the co-workers. In short, there was no apparent explanation for this seemingly healthy man to suffer a sudden cardiac arrest.

Find out what happened and what was determined as the cause of this via the entire article. Reprinted by permission. Author: David Ross.

Categories: Case Studies
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