Tall Tented T waves

Sometimes you never remember things until you see them and they are forever etched in your mind.

We had a young man (40s) come in today with DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis). He had very poorly controlled Type I diabetes and was on dialysis - with just about every complication in the book. He had ischaemic chest pain and there were no beds for him in Renal so he wound up here at CCU.

Anyway... on admission his glucose was 72!!!! and his Potassium was 8!!!! ECG showed TALL, TENTED T WAVES, and WIDENED QRS COMPLEXES. Our consultant said he was very lucky to survive - this was a textbook ECG that portended DEATH!!! He said he hoped we would never see an ECG like that ever again in our lives.

This patient is now BETTER.

My luckless run with drips continues though...... I wonder what will happen to me when I have to do them for my living (which is soon).