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I hope this is the right place for this. I need to know about emergency medical treatments.

For what reason would an emergency room doctor run a pregnancy test on an unconscious woman?

What types of other test would they run? For what kinds of injuries?



TLAT

Hmm.... Pregnancy test on an unconscious woman? Not a doctor, so see if one speaks up, but the main thing that comes to my mind would be some kind of abdominal trauma. The doctor would need to find out if he/she's mainly looking for internal injuries, or if there's a child that might have been injured.

Possibly also if there were indications of rape? Don't know how long pregnancy takes to become testable, and if the rape could have gotten the victim pregnant, there would be more immediate data to collect.

I'm not a doctor either (Help, Super Dr. Jill! ), but I don't see why they wouldn't see the pregnancy hormones when they checked blood or urine. When my mom's been in the ER in the past, they've treated her like a pin cushion and have taken countless blood samples. They also sampled urine and other secretions. I don't think it would be weird to do blood tests and find results that indicate pregnancy.

- Laura

I think it's standard operation to ask a woman if there's a chance she might be pregnant before giving x-rays. There is some risk to the fetus and steps are taken to prevent exposure.

So if a woman came in unconscious and they needed to take x-rays to see if she has broken bones, or something, they might test her blood to be on the safe side.

It is also quite possible I have no idea what I'm talking about, but when I was 13 I broke my leg in a softball game. My mom took me to the ER and this poor tech had to say, "There's no risk of pregnancy, is there?" And my mom...well...let's just say that was not pretty. She resented the question a tiny bit.

CC

Any time a woman of childbearing age has to have any treatment involving taking medications, or of course, having X-rays taken, they ask about pregnancy. In an emergency room situation, with an unconscious woman, it's one of many routine tests.

Nan

Thank you for your help.

I was considering a stab wound to the lower abdomen. Do you think this would harm the child, if not will the pregnancy become high risk?




Do you know what types of other test are routine?


TLAT

ROTFL, CC! Wish I'd been a fly on the wall.

LabRat

In the case of a lower abdomen stab wound, I'm gathering that the pregnancy issue would involve one that is not yet visible to the naked eye?

In that case -- certainly there'd be the possibility that a weapon could cut the uterus to some extent. Any pregnancy concurrently in progress would become high-risk; some wounds could be surgically repaired but then the ongoing pregnancy would have to be monitored for potential complications. Likewise, the safety of the fetus would have to be considered, and any injury corrected if possible. Surgery on a fetus in-utero is becoming more common, so both the fetus and the uterus could certainly recover from a cutting injury, depending on the severity. That is, surgery to repair injury to a fetus is possible, as is repair to the uterine wall. If a fetus were large enough to be in the way of a forceful stabbing wound, permanent damage might require some degree of surgical intervention and then close monitoring.

There have been successful surgeries where the surgeon cuts into the uterus and pulls out the body part (limb) of the fetus in order to work on it. And there have been successful surgeries where much of the child is, essentially, delivered out of the uterus, onto the surface of the mother's abdomen, which allows the surgeon to work on the child's torso or head (or close an open spinal cord). The fetus is then tucked neatly away back into the uterus, and the uterine and abdominal muscle layers, etc., are sutured.

There is also the possibility of a stab wound injuring not the uterus but one of the mother's other vital organs. An intestinal cut or tear is pretty serious, as you have the added complication of wide-spread infection if the intestine is opened into the abdominal cavity. Spleen, kidney, or bladder injury would very likely require close followup if the woman were pregnant, and a liver injury could be seriously dangerous, if not fatal. Blood loss can be of serious danger to both mother and child, and permanent nerve damage or injury to the (mother's) spinal cord (ie, paralysis) would cause delivery problems later.

As for routine tests in an ER -- to some extent, tests depend on the situation. In an unconscious woman, blood typing, blood counts, kidney and liver function tests, etc. would be likely if there is the possibility of imaging (ie, x-rays) studies, or any surgery. If there were no obvious injuries, other tests might include a d-dimer (can indicate blood clots or inflammatory processes), drug screens (suspected overdose of some kind) and blood sugar (since both too low and too high blood sugar levels can cause unconsciousness). Blood pressure/pulse, ECG, and blood oxygen help determine cardiac and circulatory status.

~Toc

Thanks Toc this helps a lot and has given me a lot to think about.

(Sorry didn't mean to rhyme. )

I hope my muse gets the message.

Thank you all!

TLAT