ER wait leads Swede to sew up own leg

[Valli6]

And now the hospital has reported him "on suspicion of criminal dispossession for having used hospital equipment without authorization"! :D

from The Local - Sweden's News in English

Jonas, 32, sewed up his own leg after ER wait

A 32-year-old took the needle into his hands when he tired of the wait at Sundsvall hospital in northern Sweden and sewed up the cut in his leg himself. The man was later reported to the police for his impromptu handiwork.

 "It took such a long time," the man told the local Sundsvall Tidning daily.
The man incurred the deep cut when he sliced his leg on the sharp edge of a kitchen stove while he was renovating at home.

"I first went to the health clinic, but it was closed. So I rang the medical help line and they told me that it shouldn't be closed, so I went to emergency and sat there," the man named only as Jonas told the newspaper.

After an hour-long wait in a treatment room, he lost patience and proceeded to sew up his own wound.

"They had set out a needle and thread and so I decided to take the matter into my hands," he said.

But hospital staff were not as impressed by his initiative and have reported the man on suspicion of criminal dispossession for having used hospital equipment without authorization.

While Jonas admitted to the newspaper that he has no prior experience of sewing up himself he sought to play down the fuss that his handiwork has caused, arguing that "through the ages people have always sewn themselves up".
Peter Vinthagen Simpson



http://www.thelocal.se/28150/20100803/
:confused: (Not sure what to make of this source as it contains some hilarious headlines) :D

[Uncle Emanuel Watkins]

And now the hospital has reported him "on suspicion of criminal dispossession for having used hospital equipment without authorization"! :D

from The Local - Sweden's News in English


http://www.thelocal.se/28150/20100803/
:confused: (Not sure what to make of this source as it contains some hilarious headlines) :D

Does anyone know a home remedy for deadening the pain around such a wound so it can be sewed up? I think the scar from sewing oneself up would be great discussion in a bar of inebriated woman. Of course, one should sterilize the needle. Any other suggestions?

[00_Pete]

If true its a great display of manliness. :)

[Varin]

It´s a true story. I live in Sweden.

[SWATH]

How dare he not wait on his bureaucratic overlords and attempt to save himself!

[Brian4Liberty]

Does anyone know a home remedy for deadening the pain around such a wound so it can be sewed up? I think the scar from sewing oneself up would be great discussion in a bar of inebriated woman. Of course, one should sterilize the needle. Any other suggestions?

Sterilize the wound with with iodine or alcohol. Take a shot of the alcohol and don't worry about the pain. ;)

[pcosmar]

Gotta love a "do it yourself" attitude.

btw, I use Anbesol for an anesthetic.

[brandon]

Does anyone know a home remedy for deadening the pain around such a wound so it can be sewed up? I think the scar from sewing oneself up would be great discussion in a bar of inebriated woman. Of course, one should sterilize the needle. Any other suggestions?

Putting ice on it for a while should slightly numb it. Cocaine is also a good local anesthetic that should be relatively easy to get, but expensive.

[Brian4Liberty]

After an hour-long wait in a treatment room, he lost patience and proceeded to sew up his own wound.

This guy is impatient. In an emergency room here in the US (Kaiser), I waited for three hours, with no other patients there. There was simply no doctor, just a few nurses or aides of some kind sitting around. I finally went and urged them to get a doctor in there, or we were leaving. Luckily they didn't call the Police, who may have shot me, which wouldn't be good, as there were no doctors there. They did call in a doctor from home, which took even longer. That Doctor told me he had to come in because some had reported a case of "waiting room rage". ;) I actually assisted the Doctor in sewing someone else up. The other employees were useless so he preferred my help.

[sratiug]

My brother has done that several times. He doesn't bother going to the hospital though.

[MelissaWV]

Be careful using ice. It can become a bit... stuck.

[specsaregood]

I remember watching in fascination as a child as I watched my father set his own ankle after falling off the roof and breaking it. Home doctoring was a bit common in my family.

[tangent4ronpaul]

Does anyone know a home remedy for deadening the pain around such a wound so it can be sewed up? I think the scar from sewing oneself up would be great discussion in a bar of inebriated woman. Of course, one should sterilize the needle. Any other suggestions?

Ice works, but the skin doesn't stay numb very long, so you will have to re-apply it several times if it's more than a couple of stitches.

Baby teething jell works, but needs to be washed out of the wound before closure.

If you or someone is growing poppies, you could nick the bulb wait a bit and then scrape the opium that drips out. Administer bucally (inside cheek) or sublingually (under tongue). You can also get dried poppy bulbs at craft stores, grind and make poppy tea out of it. It's an old folk remedy.

The inner bark of, I believe it's aspen trees, contains aspirin. cut vertical strips of bark and chew it, so as to not kill the tree.

Acupressure works, but you need to know your neuro-anatomy.

Lidocaine, syringes and needles can be picked up from farm and ranch supply shops without a Rx. You can also buy suture there too, or on the net. sterilize the skin before giving the injections. A little bit at each of several locations around the wound. The kind with epi will keep the lido in the area longer, but can't be used in certain areas: ears, nose, fingers, toes or genitals.

wounds need to be irrigated and debrided (pick out gravel, trim any dead tissue, etc) before closure. Tap water is fine for irrigation, but use a lot of it. Filling a rubber glove with water and nicking a finger tip will allow for pressure irrigation. It's often better to pack the wound with a 50/50 sugar/honey combination and cover after the initial irrigation/debridment and do a delayed closure after several days.

Alcohol and iodine are fine for sterilization of instruments (required) and the skin surrounding a wound. Under no circumstances should they be used inside the wound as they will kill tissue, which will get infected if sewn into the wound and kill you.

If there is cut muscle, tendons, arteries, veins or the wound is over a joint, you NEED to find someone trained in wound closure, because you WILL fuck it up.

You can get medical staplers without a Rx and that's probably the best option for a novice. Keep it in it's sterile pouch until needed.

If you want to learn suturing, get a copy of Trott's "Wounds and Lacerations". It's expensive but you can find used older editions at a reasonable cost via places like http://used.addall.com You can practice on uncooked chickens from the grocery store or pigs feet. The best training is via classes that have live tissue labs, but those give PETA members fits.

Just about every improvised medical procedure you've seen on TV or in movies will most likely kill you if actually tried. Don't use the idiot box to learn field medicine.

The above is for information purposes only and should bot be considered as medical advice. I am not a doctor.

-t

[libertarian4321]

After an hour-long wait in a treatment room, he lost patience and proceeded to sew up his own wound.

An hour? Are you kidding?

If someone who isn't on the verge of death gets to see a doctor inside of an hour at a US emergency room, it's a bloody miracle.

This guy was just impatient

The last time I took my wife to an emergency room, we waited for 3+ hours- and she had insurance- who knows how long the uninsured have to wait. And this was not some ghetto public hospital full of indigents, it was a well respected private hospital in a good neighborhood.

[MelissaWV]

An hour? Are you kidding?

If someone who isn't on the verge of death gets to see a doctor inside of an hour at a US emergency room, it's a bloody miracle.

This guy was just impatient

The last time I took my wife to an emergency room, we waited for 3+ hours- and she had insurance- who knows how long the uninsured have to wait. And this was not some ghetto public hospital full of indigents, it was a well respected private hospital in a good neighborhood.

I've had longer waits, and shorter ones. The shortest waits were at a WV hospital, where I hardly had time to fill out my paperwork before it was time to see a doctor. The longer waits were at hospitals in Miami. In 10th grade, I twisted and dislocated my knee in a bad way. Once they gave me some pain meds and had me laid out on a gurney, I kept getting bumped because gunshot or accident victims would come in and get priority. Sometimes there's a good reason you're not being seen.

I have heard horror stories about Baptist in Miami, where people arrive sick and are there so long that their high fevers naturally break. For my part, I once waited with a steadily-over-105 temperature for a few hours. It felt like my brain was cooking. Unpleasant. By the time the doctor saw me, it was down to 102 and they sent me home anyhow.

[torchbearer]

Does anyone know a home remedy for deadening the pain around such a wound so it can be sewed up? I think the scar from sewing oneself up would be great discussion in a bar of inebriated woman. Of course, one should sterilize the needle. Any other suggestions?

cocaine.
it is actually handy to keep in your first aid kit.

[michaelwise]

I think there should be Youtube videos on how to perform common medical needs on yourself and circumvent the medical industrial complex.

[michaelwise]

YouTube - Stitch Removal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7OBuTwsPXY&feature=related)

[michaelwise]

YouTube - Hand Stitches (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LG2QAmgxjM&feature=related)

[johngr]

I live in the second biggest city here and I've never had a problem when I took my sons in (I haven't needed their services in years). One thing I was dismayed by (a sign of changing for the worse Sweden): when I took my two-year-old in in the middle of the night with really bad flu where the secretions were making it hard for him to breathe, there were enough towels in the ER waiting room to supply the entire hospital. My wife and son and I were the only native Swedes there (other than the staff). They triaged well and saw him straight away but I'm not surprised that someone had to wait so long to get that frustrated. Since mass immigration, all such services are less funded and more used with longer waiting times.

[MelissaWV]

Thank you. I seriously threw up. I hadn't done that in awhile, but really, thanks.

(Jerk.)

[teacherone]

Ice works, but the skin doesn't stay numb very long, so you will have to re-apply it several times if it's more than a couple of stitches.

Baby teething jell works, but needs to be washed out of the wound before closure.

If you or someone is growing poppies, you could nick the bulb wait a bit and then scrape the opium that drips out. Administer bucally (inside cheek) or sublingually (under tongue). You can also get dried poppy bulbs at craft stores, grind and make poppy tea out of it. It's an old folk remedy.

The inner bark of, I believe it's aspen trees, contains aspirin. cut vertical strips of bark and chew it, so as to not kill the tree.

Acupressure works, but you need to know your neuro-anatomy.

Lidocaine, syringes and needles can be picked up from farm and ranch supply shops without a Rx. You can also buy suture there too, or on the net. sterilize the skin before giving the injections. A little bit at each of several locations around the wound. The kind with epi will keep the lido in the area longer, but can't be used in certain areas: ears, nose, fingers, toes or genitals.

wounds need to be irrigated and debrided (pick out gravel, trim any dead tissue, etc) before closure. Tap water is fine for irrigation, but use a lot of it. Filling a rubber glove with water and nicking a finger tip will allow for pressure irrigation. It's often better to pack the wound with a 50/50 sugar/honey combination and cover after the initial irrigation/debridment and do a delayed closure after several days.

Alcohol and iodine are fine for sterilization of instruments (required) and the skin surrounding a wound. Under no circumstances should they be used inside the wound as they will kill tissue, which will get infected if sewn into the wound and kill you.

If there is cut muscle, tendons, arteries, veins or the wound is over a joint, you NEED to find someone trained in wound closure, because you WILL fuck it up.

You can get medical staplers without a Rx and that's probably the best option for a novice. Keep it in it's sterile pouch until needed.

If you want to learn suturing, get a copy of Trott's "Wounds and Lacerations". It's expensive but you can find used older editions at a reasonable cost via places like http://used.addall.com You can practice on uncooked chickens from the grocery store or pigs feet. The best training is via classes that have live tissue labs, but those give PETA members fits.

Just about every improvised medical procedure you've seen on TV or in movies will most likely kill you if actually tried. Don't use the idiot box to learn field medicine.

The above is for information purposes only and should bot be considered as medical advice. I am not a doctor.

-t

great post! noted!

[Brian4Liberty]

Alcohol and iodine are fine for sterilization of instruments (required) and the skin surrounding a wound. Under no circumstances should they be used inside the wound as they will kill tissue, which will get infected if sewn into the wound and kill you.

IIRC, there are both foaming and non-foaming iodine solutions that doctors will use to irrigate a wound. But they are specific mixtures for medical use, so who knows what is exactly in them. Sterilizing equipment with iodine is very common.

Found this. The majority of us are probably not keeping a supply of medical povidone-iodine solution around:



Introduction

Surgical site infection is a serious complication of surgery. This evidence-based review sought to determine the efficacy and risks of using povidone-iodine irrigation to prevent surgical site infection.

Methods

We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) or comparative studies only (level of evidence I–III).

Results

Of the 15 included studies, all of which were level I or level II evidence (11 RCTs and 4 prospective comparative studies), 10 found povidone-iodine irrigation to be significantly more effective at preventing surgical site infection than the comparison interventions of saline, water or no irrigation. No significant risks were associated with the use of povidone-iodine irrigation other than increased postoperative serum iodine.

Conclusion

Povidone-iodine irrigation is a simple and inexpensive solution with the potential to prevent surgical site infection.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2386220/

[Valli6]

I know it sounds like this guy was impatient over a 1 hour wait, but notice it says the one hour wait was in the "treatment room" where they had set out the "needle and thread". I'm guessing that before the "treatment room" he had waited in the "waiting room" for a period of time which isn't mentioned in the story? I've had appointments where this sort of thing happens. Anyway, I'm guessing this guy had some knowledge of self-suturing. Some people do. Like he said , "through the ages people have always sewn themselves up".

I wonder how the total cost of treatment is written up, since they can't add the cost of a doctor's labor?

[Brian4Liberty]

wounds need to be irrigated and debrided (pick out gravel, trim any dead tissue, etc) before closure.

Yep. Gotta trim the mangled hamburger and you can't leave the gravel in there. ;)

[tangent4ronpaul]

IIRC, there are both foaming and non-foaming iodine solutions that doctors will use to irrigate a wound. But they are specific mixtures for medical use, so who knows what is exactly in them. Sterilizing equipment with iodine is very common.

Found this. The majority of us are probably not keeping a supply of medical povidone-iodine solution around:

We used povidone-iodine sponges in the ER to prep skin, never in the wound. What they do in surgery may be different. Also, the article is recent and protocols change.

Povidone-iodine also contains considerably less iodine than the tincture versions and was applied briefly then presumable irrigated from the wound in the studies.

povidone-iodine is useful stuff, I keep a bottle around.


Of the 500 patients enrolled, 242 were randomly allocated to 10% povidone-iodine (1% available iodine) irrigation of the subcutaneous tissue for 60 seconds at operation, and 258 were randomly allocated to an equivalent amount of saline irrigation.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture_of_iodine


USP Tincture of Iodine is defined in the U.S. National Formulary (NF) as containing in each 100 mL, 1.8 to 2.2 grams of elemental iodine, and 2.1 to 2.6 grams of sodium iodide. Alcohol is 50 ml and the balance is purified water. This "2% free iodine" solution provides about one mg of free iodine per drop.

USP Strong Iodine Tincture is defined in the NF as containing in each 100 mL, 6.8 to 7.5 gram of iodine, and 4.7 to 5.5 gram of potassium iodide. Purified water is 50 mL and the balance is alcohol. This 7% tincture solution is about 3.5 times more concentrated than USP 2% tincture.

As both solutions contain elemental iodine, which is moderately toxic when ingested in amounts larger than those required to disinfect water, tincture of iodine is sold labeled "for external use only," and used primarily as a disinfectant. Although small amounts may be added to drinking water as a disinfectant (typically 5 mg free iodine per liter, or 5 drops of 2% tincture), iodine tincture is not an appropriate source of solely-nutritional iodine. Nutritional iodine is better supplied in the form of the less toxic iodide (see SSKI) or iodate salts, which the body can easily convert to thyroid hormone. Nevertheless, the iodide in tincture of iodine does supply more than adequate nutritional iodine, if it is used as a water disinfectant.

Tincture of iodine is often found in emergency survival kits, used both to disinfect wounds and to sanitize surface water for drinking. When an alcohol solution is not desirable for this purpose, the water-free Lugol's iodine, an aqueous solution of iodine in potassium iodide solution, or else povidone iodine (Betadine), a PVPI solution, can be used.

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

A couple of notes....

On arterial/liver/kidney bleeding - there are several very expensive products out there to deal with this. One is based on volcanic rick and it's exothermic. It BURNS! It's painful! You can buy the raw material commercially and grind/cool it for much less than the commercial product. The current version is spread in sponges and not as painful. Another is based on the exoskeletons of creations, You know shrimp and lobsters... clean out the bodies of your shrimp dinner, cook them at 119 - 120 degrees and then powder in a mortar and pedestal and you have something that will effectively stop arterial bleeding,

On tissue - if it's brown, mushy and pathetic looking - it's dead and needs to be cut out. If it's red and bleeding, it's viable and should stay.

The book "top knife" is excellent on trauma surgery and should be consulted.

-t

[silus]

I love Sweden. I studied there for almost 6 months, and its paradise if i've ever seen it, regardless of how sustainable you think it to be. Only problem I observed is the immigration. It seems to be at levels that doesn't promote integration, but separate communities. But I met tons of immigrants that integrated, and to be honest its not that hard considering the awesome ratio of beautiful Swedish women. Who WOULDN'T want to integrate!!

[devil21]

Weird "news" in Sweden:



Today's Most Read Stories in Sweden

1.Jonas, 32, sewed up his own leg after ER wait »
2.Three naked German women found in woods »
3.Hungry berry pickers shoot birds for food »
4.Agency rejects FCKU2MF reg plate as 'offensive' »
5.Ryanair won't drop card fees despite law »

[tangent4ronpaul]

Weird "news" in Sweden:

re: #2 - how come I'm never that lucky.... :(

-t

[tangent4ronpaul]

considering the awesome ratio of beautiful Swedish women. Who WOULDN'T want to integrate!!

That sounds like your out of luck... why is that good?

-t

[Anti Federalist]

Gotta love a "do it yourself" attitude.

btw, I use Anbesol for an anesthetic.


Bingo, that's a great local anesthetic.

The gel form works best, I think.

[silus]

That sounds like your out of luck... why is that good?

-t
Why is a high ratio of beautiful women good? Umm...