What kind of tests are performed by a paramedic on an adult after CPR has resuscitated them from a drowning in a bubble bath?
Well, they look and listen reeeeaaallly carefully. There are many reasons for the lungs to sound not-so-clear, and several different things which can be done to help. There’s no immediate test other than listening, and possibly looking at some x-rays n stuff or what’s come out of someone’s mouth or lungs, though x-rays most commonly only confirm what you hear– many times you’ll hear badness before anything unusual would show up on imaging. Other lab tests can be performed to help determine the cause of said badness, but not necessarily its presence. I’m taking “drowning in a bubble bath” to mean the presence of fluid in the lungs. This can happen for a number of reasons, including, well, fluid in the lungs from the start, problems with the lungs, problems with the heart, problems with the blood, and problems with someone having a Capri-Sun straw jammed into his chest and said straw being connected up to a giant vat of Capri-Sun, or, trauma. Anyway, to answer your question, it would be
Part of the answer also depends on the level of training of the responder; EMTs and paramedics are not the same thing. Another thing that will make a difference is how close they were to actually dying; if they needed intubation, for example, they would be left intubated (and tests to confirm proper tube placement performed as described in the link) and their breathing would be assisted with a portable ventilator or bag-valve-mask device. In addition to a pulse oximeter as mentioned above, they would probably be hooked up to an EKG monitor and blood pressure cuff. Feel free to memail me if you want more details.
Whoa! Thanks to you all. I went to that TV Tropes site and realized that all my knowledge about this was informed by bad television. It is truly humbling. Still, I have need for my character to be up and running quite soon after this near death experience. I’m going to try to ground the scene in truth, insert an ambulance, CPR on the way, her heart starts to flutter in the ambo, they’ve got to de-fib, and she’s revived, then they do that battery of tests. They didn’t crack a rib but they will mention that it’s possible. And THEN she’s up and running. Thanks to everyone again. I don’t know what fiction writers did before google and AskMeFi. Make crazy shit up, I suppose.
