Reply #48: A fundamental tenet of Medicine

[panzerfaust]

… Is that you treat the sick and injured no matter what the cause.

I have taken care of attempted suicides, iv druggers, alternative medicine victims, crime victims, muggers, murderers, and, yes, even Senators.

Known venomous snake bite to face = dire medical emergency = immediate treatment.

So the bite was the result of a childish superstition – who gives a rat’s ass? The victim should have immediately been treated with anti-venom, and, at the first suspicion of loss of airway, should have been intubated.

Based on the reported facts, the family is 100% correct. It was NOT the snake bite that caused the death, it was the lack of appropriate and timely treatment.

Doctors and nurses are there to care for the hurt, the sick, the injured: they are not there to pass judgment on another person’s life choices.