tattoo customer killed other day

[charley]

saw on the news here in new york a dude was getting a tattoo done he begin to feel dizzy and nauseas he stood up and fell into the glass display counter and slashed his throut killing him instantly ouch guess we need to keep them class dislpay counters out of tattoo area

[JosephBigBear]

HOLY FUCking Shit!

[charley]

pretty sad did u get my e-mail bigbear i have the cutback liner

[STARMedic]

The glass display counter probably wasnt the best place to be standing next to in his condition, coupled with the fact that the artist should have been on his/her feet as well next to the person's side makin sure that when they did fall out it was more of a controlled slump to the deck. Bear in mind that this could have just as easily happened at WalMart or Krispy Kreme and ended the same way it did. Not knowing the extent of the injury its hard for me to say what could or could not have helped that dude....

Best thing I could come up with on short notice to help anyone reading would go somethin like this....

1. Keep an eye on your subject, if they are in your chair, their well being is in your best interest.
2. If all of a sudden they get this thousand yard stare in their eyes and tell you they are feeling badly or that they are really scared. You might wanna put your machine down and start doing some simple medical assessments.
3. If their pallor turns grey or ashen, or they become diaphoretic, cold, clammy, sweaty, see number 2.
4. If they stand up, because of feeling badly....Stand up with them, make sure you have both arms empty and preferrably near the patient in case of a fall or sudden loss of consciousness. Try to position them someplace free of hazards, if thats not possible, try and get them to sit. Recommend something called the tripod position with both hands on their knees in front of them while sitting. This position pretty much is the universally accepted position for respiratory distress, and seems to be the normal no shit cardiac position for everyone we find having serious problems.....One thing is though that it seems to be the position of comfort for them.

If someone does fall out on you, remember A, B, C.....

Airway: Open the airway with either a Head tilt chin lift or a jaw thrust. Breathing: Look, Listen and Feel. Look for rise and fall of chest while listening for breath sounds. Can you feel any air being exhaled.
Circulation: Check their pulse, the best way I can describe this is that if they are standing, sitting or laying palm up thumb out, take your first two fingers and go to the outer wrist where the base of the thumb is, track about 1.5-2" back and press firmly downward until you feel the bump, bump, bump of the pulse. If possible count the beats in a full minute, if not count the beats in 30 seconds and multiply times two. After checkin the pulse, Check the skin, check color, temperature and condition.

Color: Warm, Dry, Pink= OK. Blue around lips or other parts=BAD.
Condition: Grab a fold of skin on the arm or top of wrist and pinch and pull, then release. Does it return to normal instantly, or does it take awhile....If it takes awhile then its showing poor skin turgor which is indicative of dehydration.

In the trauma setting you will want to control all major bleeding immediately. What this means is that if the blood is bright red and spurting, use direct pressure with a gloved hand. When you have a dressing ready, install it over the wound. If the bleeding continues, or bleeds through the dressing, cover it with additional dressing, but do not remove the initial dressings. Elevate the extremity as well. If this doesnt work then you will have to find an arterial pressure point. If none of this works, then application of a tourniquet may be necessary...HOWEVER, use of a tourniquet should only be done as a last resort.

In the medical setting, hopefully on the screening sheet the customer had indicated if they have had any pre existing medical conditions, ie Diabetic, Cardiac problems, siezures and so on.

If for some reason they go into diabetic shock or lose consciousness please dont go stuffin candy down their throats, as this creates an airway problem. Dial 911 so that the Medic's can get some D50 in them via IVP.

If they are lethargic or appear drunken and are diabetics, ask them when the last time they took their blood sugar reading was and when the last time they ate was. If their blood sugar is below 50 there is a problem. 80-120ish are considered the normal range. If possible get some skim milk in their system, orange juice or even a packet of sugar under the tongue work well also.

Cardiac is a whole different ball game. The key to survival with this is early defibrillation. If a customer is havin a heart attack, they will characterize the pain as squeezing or crushing in nature, Ive never, not once had someone tell me I have a stabbing pain in my chest and had it turn out as a heart attack. The pain may also be in their lower jaw, or radiating down their left arm. Ask them on a scale of 1-10 with 1 bein the least and 10 bein the worst pain they have ever felt what the pain is, ask them when it started, and does anything make it worse.

For cardiac they need high flow oxygen at 100% delivered at 15lpm via a non rebreathing mask, a monitor or aed capable of defibrillation and other items that most tattoo studio's dont have. So somewhere hopefully someone has dialed 911. Keep in mind the above criteria, as the 911 operator may link you to the responders and any of the above information you give them can help them formulate a treatment plan that much more quickly. And in these situations time is everything.

Also to note women have a higher incidence of cardiac problem presentation with none of the above associated problems, studies have shown that women present more often with indigestion and nausea.

I know Ive forgotten some details within this, but Ive kinda tried to convey the basics. If they are lying down and they vomit, turn them on their sides and clear the airway.

For this guy that fell thru the display counter.....The only thing that could have saved him was prevention.....Preventing him from standing, and preventing him from falling uncontrollably.

This is the best I can do for now, lol its 0200 and I got 6 hrs left in a 24hr shift.

Bruce

[tadt]

holy crap STAR that was a long post ,i red most of it. im just wondering what a display case was doing near that artists booth or area? ive been into alot of tattoo places around were i live and ive never seen a display case in a booth, sounds like common sense to me to keep anything like that away from your booth since you never know how the client is going to react. someone at work told me about this incident after i got it from here, does anyone know what studio this happened at? i would like to follow up on it since im sure there will be some lawyers involded.

[Essex Boy]

www.nydailynews.com/front/story/355943p-303377c.html

[Papa Gee]

Seems the guy got up and walked over towards the glass case. Hell of a way to go man. He was getting a last rites tattoo too.

As a practice I watch my clients closely during a session. Esprcially if they get quiet all of a sudden. I try to keep a conversation going so I can gauge their demeanor the whole time. If someone feels faint I try to keep them sitting and instruct them to place their elbows on their knees and lower the head till it passes.

I recently had a guy pass out on me in spite of all the precautions I had taken. He suddenly said "I need to stand up!" and was on his feet before I could stop him. I laid down my machine and stood beside him. I also told his partner to get on the other side of him. When he went down we had him by the arms. I'm a little fella. I'm 5'6" and weigh about 150lbs. My client was much larger than me. So it was a bit of a chore to get him back in the chair.

[Anonymous]

just wondering if more men than women pass out had a couple of men but only one women in every case none of them had eaten thats the only thing they had in common :D

[STARMedic]

I dont have any facts related to this as it goes toward tattooing, however I can say that more male students have gotten sick or fainted than female students at the sight of major trauma. It also seems that more of my male patients seems to be weaker in the knees when we are performing invasive procedures on site or enroute than female patients....the girls just seem to knuckle up harder than the guys. The guys tend to talk more and be more full of shit overall as well. Dont get me wrong, I currently have one female on our team who is supposed to be some sort of Combat Medic straight out of Fallujah and Baghram (Iraq and Afghan) and she panicks quite frequently.....Not good in our line of work......

HTH,

Bruce

[Brad]

Them Damm New Yorkers!!!

Serious though thats crazy.I cant belive I didn't haer about it being I live here.They should not have let him walk that much around the shop.But most shops here try to make money & sell alot of shit you really would not find in most shops & I'm not kidding,huge display cases of dildos right next to another case with like Lucky 13 lunch Box's etc.In N.Y. they exploit the shit out of tattooing " IN MOST PLACES" & its all about money not art,its all about fasion not a life style.Thats another reason it is so hard to find an apprenticeship here.But then you have the real shops were our breed go like Sacred tattoo,Last Rites,Tattoo SEEN etc.

Brad
N.Y.C.