English for Medical Students

The page last updated on 04/04/2009 at 09:34.

Unit 6: The Digestive System

Listening Activity: Case Report on Patient with Vomiting -- Check your answers.

Listen to the case report and check your answers. The printed text is available below.

 

   

Verb Tenses: Case Report
The patient presented at 9 pm to the emergency room with nausea and vomiting. The patient had not eaten since the day before. The patient reported that the symptoms had come on slowly over a period of 12 hours. He recalled that the first symptoms occurred that morning. He said he felt a little nauseous when he first woke up and the feeling had steadily gotten worse. He said his first episode of vomiting occurred at 1 pm. He reported that the contents of his stomach appeared to contain the previous evening’s meal. He said that he had been vomiting ever since.

He said that on the previous night he and his wife had dined at a Sushi restaurant in the central part of the city. He had had traditional sushi with rice wine and his wife had had vegetarian sushi. She also had consumed rice wine with her meal. They had eaten lunch around noon that day, although, they had not eaten together. He had eaten at McDonalds and had had a Big Mac Menu with cola, while she had eaten at a Pizzeria near her office.

Since he first vomited at 1 pm, he said he has vomited 6 additional times, at approximately 90 minute intervals. The other episodes of vomiting produced mainly fluids with only small bits of solid matter. The patient’s wife reported no illness and no nausea. She concurred with her husband’s assessment of his illness and the time line he had described.

She offered some additional information regarding what he had consumed that day. She said that she had made him coffee for breakfast and had gotten him to drink several cups of tea before his first episode of vomiting. After that, she was able to get him to drink several glasses of water. She guessed that he had had about 4 glasses of water since 1 pm.

The couple said that they had made plans to go to Aruba, and were scheduled to leave in 3 days. They were concerned that they would have to cancel their flight. The patient’s mood was somewhat depressed, expressing that if they make plans, one of them will almost certainly end up getting sick just before they are to leave.

The patient was admitted to the hospital, put on IV hydration and given antiemetics. Food poisoning was suspected. The patent’s condition improved steadily over night and he was discharged home the following afternoon.

Information regarding the case was passed along to the food safety department for investigation.