PulmCCM - January 17, 2016
"On this snowy, Stockholm Sunday, I look out from my quarters on the Mälardrottningen across the still, icy waters and I think about a cirrhotic patient for whom I recently cared. She presented with significant dyspnea as she had stopped taking her diuretics. Instead, she was using excessive doses of her friend’s albuterol inhaler to treat her shortness of breath. Additionally, she had been drinking alcohol heavily for seven days prior to admission. Her venous pH was 7.38, and her lactate concentration was over 7.0 mmol/L – a sepsis alert was called."