Title: Case Study 10-7 Psychiatric Emergencies
Course: EMS 1119 Emergency Medical Technician > Section: Module X Medicine

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Your BLS unit is dispatched at 7:30 AM to a 911 call of a female acting confused and disoriented. The call was made by a woman who advised that her neighbor came over and was talking “out-of-her-head."  She advised dispatch that she knew the patient had a history of diabetes. All ALS units are on other emergencies.

Upon arrival to the address the caller (neighbor) runs out of the house next door and approaches the ambulance and points to the house and says:

“Thank god you are here.  Im so worried. Mandy is acting strange. She came over to my house opened the door and started taking things out of my house. She is not herself. I know she is a diabetic and she takes pills or shots or something, but she is not right! She is a dear friend. Just the other day she wouldn’t even get off the sofa, I don’t think she has been asleep for 36 hours.

The neighbor tells you she is in back yard.

You and your partner walk around to the rear of the patient's house where you observe a female in pajama pants, football jersey and no shoes outside yelling and hitting the ground with a baseball bat repeatedly.

1. What is your first priority action?
2. Is this the typical behavior of a patient with diabetes?  Explain?
3. What are your treatment priorities?
4. What aspects of Florida Statues potentially apply in this case?
5. What explains this patients behavior?