Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Sleep Walking



We all know that sleep walking can be dangerous...but I never thought of this happening. The cat scan shown is that of a poor patient from yesterday. 29 year old make walked in confused, wide based gait, and bruising around his eyes (racoon eyes).
Classic picture of someone with an epidural hematoma, and that's what he ended up having. His girlfriend said he was sleepwalking and accidentally fell down the stairs...about 22 of them. They had a gate on the stairs to prevent this, but I guess it didn't work. He quickly declined and had to go to the operating room to drain the blood. So far he is still alive and he should do ok.

-ER Doc

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh man! His poor 'think gland'! Here's to hoping he heals completely and rapidly, and that something could be done about that doggone somnambulance! I'm thinking a door alarm from the local Dollar Tree would be better than the gate.

Natika said...

I was sleep walking when we were in Cabo in 2001 and walked over a railing of a 3rd story balcony. The only night we HAD'NT drank because we had a flight the next morning.
Long story short....flew home late afternoon with injuries. Broken bones, massive bruising, & lots of other things. Spent 10 days in a trauma unit waiting for swelling to go down so 18 screws & 3 plates could be put into my body. I have had 4 surgeries since.

A few things I learned...Always get a suite on the first floor. Never go to a Mexican hospital. Massive injuries+flying don't mix. You CAN'T get pain meds in mexican hospitals(except for Tramadol). And last but not least...people will automatically think your husband did it!

Ouch!! said...

Goodness! is he on Ambien??? I did this one time on Ambien, thank God I hit my head on the door and woke up. No more Ambien for me. Surprisingly, I took 2 tabs of Ibuprofen the following night because the bruise on my forehead still stings a little bit and slept well. Since then I reduced my dose to one Ibuprofen a night, 4 times a week and been sleeping well. Who would have thunk. Now I'm waiting for an ulcer to develop or my kidneys to fail, hehehe.

Anonymous said...

Hectic!

Unknown said...

I had a similar case. I work on a neuro rehab unit and we had a patient come to us after he sleep-walked himself right into his car and drove it at 80 miles an hour into the next door neighbors tree.

Since he was asleep, he wasn't wearing a seat belt and went through the windshield, ending up as a paraplegic.

Sad things.