 |
| Image Source: Defense Visual Information Distribution Services |
 |
| This post was peer reviewed. Click to learn more. |
Author: Sara Urquhart, RN MA
Medical Student
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine
AAEM/RSA Publications and Social Media Committee
Imagine an unconscious 15-year-old male arrives at a downtown Miami trauma center. Paramedics say that before passing out, he told his Spanish-speaking girlfriend he felt “intoxicado.” “Intoxicated,” they say. The boy is stabilized and admitted to intensive care with a diagnosis of drug overdose. No one called an interpreter to interview his girlfriend. If they had, they would have learned that in Cuban Spanish, intoxicado is a word for nausea and that the boy did not take an overdose. Over 36 hours later, imaging shows a ruptured subarachnoid aneurism on the now paraplegic boy, who survives and later wins a $71 million malpractice lawsuit.[1]
