What type of analgesic do they use in A& E departments and in what doses?

[Annanan]

Also what would paramedics do for sucking chest wounds.And what facilities etc do they have in ITU's for dealing with these wounds. It is for a novel that i am writing.

[Ethel]

The secret to writing a great novel is to write about things you have a very good knowledge of, or at least the know-how to properly research - such as excellent contacts.

I would think about a different story line, or at least ways to cover up your lack of knowledge re A&E and medical techniques.

[MrXLA]

Good answer Ethel, its actually quite insulting to think that you could post on here and recieve a simple answer to essentially a very complex question, do you really think that only ONE drug is used for EVERYONE in every situation????

[sqad617]

Annanan is writing a novel in which one of her characters is involved in a RTA and sustained a sucking injury to the chest. As a part of her research and only a part, she has posted on AB a question which simply asks " has any ABer any experience of a casualty dept, nurse, doctor, etc who could help me with my NOVEL?"
In my opinion she has received answers from Ethel and MrXL wich in my opinion are pompous, insensitive and unhelpful. A novel is a FICTITOUS piece of prose or narrative and annanan is not preparing a paper on Flail chest injuries to be presented to the British Journal of Thoracic Surgery.
Also MrXLA's comments on my 2part contribution to this thread are spurious and miss the point.
Annanan has been let down by the relevent or in this case irrelevant ABers.

[Ethel]

You are entitled to your opinion, but a novel has to be grounded in reality to a point, and if he knows nothing of these procedures he should omit them from his book, unless he has a personal contact who can advise him.

My advice was common sense, and is similar to a reply he would have received from The Writers' Guild.

I didn't remark on the lack of punctuation nor the grammatical errors which I would have done were I being pompous.

[sqad617]

An inadequate answer Ethel, but I particularly enjoyed your last paragraph which tickled my rather odd sense of humour.

[Ethel]

:)

[wardie100]

Im not sure what you mean by sucking chest wounds?? If its anything like a collapsed lung (pneumothorax/haemothorax) they would put a chest drain in (after xray confirmation).

But if your going to mention any analgesic the best to mention would probably be IV morphine I think.

[sqad617]

I.V morphine would really put paid to our hero as it is a respiratory depressant and with a flail chest, sucking chest, haemothorax, pneumothorax or whatever, he would be fighting for breath. Analgesia would probably consist of infiltration of local anaesthetic into the damaged ribs.

[Annanan]

Thanks all of you espeacally squad for coming to my defence. i don't see doing research this way as any different from asking a friend who is a nurse or something, except i don't know anyone who is a nurse, and if all writers stuck to writing what they know about i can think alot of books that would never have been written.

thanks for all you help anyway

[sqad617]

Annanan, thank you for your kind words and like you I did think that the AB was for informed advice, but looking at some of the questions and answers, I realise that I might have got it wrong.
Moving on to more important matters, I ask a small favour. if they make a film from your novel and there is a character who is supercilious, contemptuous,egotisitic, charmless "git", please give me a ring as I could fill the role without rehearsal.
Good luck with your novel

[Annanan]

thanks i will rember that. ta for your advice it was great.

[elginred]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sucking_chest_wou nd

This is a wikipedia article, about halfway down there is first aid section about "sucking chest wounds"

Good luck with your book!!