BEL spill: Lakeman 'critical but stable'

[docicu3]

Originally Posted by Kasept

J. DaSilva reporting Lakeman on life support.. Place him in your prayers.

Steve

I would be very careful drawing conclusions about prognosis based on the phrase "on life support"......

All this means is that Lakeman is being treated with hyperventilation. This is basic to treatment of all blunt head trauma cases as a first modality to lower the pressure in his head.

By breathing fast for him using a ventilator the blood vessels actually constrict thus taking up less room in his head which lowers the pressure TEMPORARILY in his head.

This is the first thing done in head trauma cases. The fact that he didn't go immediately to surgery is actually encouraging. If he was actively bleeding in his head a pressure monitor would be placed in the operating room to drain blood which apparently wasn't necessary by reports.

I will certainly say a prayer for him tonight myself as he is certainly critically ill but I wouldn't assume death is near unless more information is brought to light.

Please don't take the fact that he is intubated on a ventilator as any more than appropriate trauma treatment. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood issues in all of critical care medicine.

Dr D