1.After initiating care, you gather the SAMPLE history from the family and learn that the patient was released from the hospital five days earlier after bariatric surgery. The patient is also an insulindependent diabetic with a history of hypertension. He has been taking his insulin, but because of a recent history of nausea with vomiting, he has been unable to keep his oral antihypertensive or any food down. Ongoing ventilatory assistance only produces breath sounds in the upper and middle lobes with minimal sounds to the lower lobes. Your partner reports that it is hard to keep a good seal with the BVM during ventilations.
a. What could be done to help your partner better ventilate the patient?
b. Is this patient a candidate for CPAP therapy by EMS? Why or why not?
c. What other bedside diagnostic should be obtained, given this patient’s medical history and recent medical problems?
