Blood on hands - Dr. & EMT question (NSR)

I was involved in an incident last night where my hands were covered with a significant amount of someone else's blood. (No violence or altercation involved.)

As the EMT was loading the individual into the ambulance, he threw an offhand comment of "You'll want to clean your hands up quickly." That threw me off a bit as I live in an area which would be considered "gay friendly."

I don't have any cuts on my hands other than the odd hangnail, but is this a situation where I should talk to the individual and inquire about any health issues they might have?

Thanks in advance.

If nothing else it would definately help set your mind at ease. I would recommend talking to him if you can. I assume that you cleaned them well as soon as you could.

Well I would go get tested anyway. And maybe call the emergency room the guy went to and talk to the charge nurse and explain the situation. He/She will let you know if the patient has HIV/AIDS and if you need to be tested or not. You have to be notifide. It is the law

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Originally Posted by TJ.Brk

And maybe call the emergency room the guy went to and talk to the charge nurse and explain the situation. He/She will let you know if the patient has HIV/AIDS and if you need to be tested or not. You have to be notifide. It is the law

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Ahh. This is very good advice. Thanks.

There is no way any one from the ER or any other medical facillity will tell you if the person has HIV or anything else. Privacy laws prevent medical personell from discussing anyones medical information with other people.

Your best bet is to get tested or if this is someone you know ask them if they know thier HIV/HBV status.

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Originally Posted by Vinman

There is no way any one from the ER or any other medical facillity will not tell you if the person has HIV or anything else. Privacy laws prevent medical personell from discussing anyones medical information with other people.

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And the rebuttal. Duly noted.

Vinman edited his slip so I'll get rid of this. Move along nothing to see here.

im really not sure, but just fyi i think i remember hearing somewhere that if you find out you've been exposed to HIV soon enough, there are drugs/treatments that can actually cure you or something. i think you have to work fast though.
good luck to you though, hope everything works out all right.

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Originally Posted by L7

Reread your post. I think you mistyped what you were trying to say.

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editied, thanks L7, too many thoughts running around at once and forgot to get rid of that one word.

I am not horribly worried about infection (as I basically boiled my hands in chlorine last night), but I was wondering what a health care professional would do if faced with the same situation.

But thanks to all for the info.

When faced with an incident like this when patrolling, we're covered by the hill. We're always free to get tested if we have any concerns. In your case, it doesn't sound like you were working, so were you just a bystander helping out? If that's the case, I would like to think that your local hospital would help you out. Go in, explain to them the situation, if you can, give them the name of the Ambulance service (and the EMT if you know it) for verfication. Good Sameritan laws protect you from liability if you were helping, and I would think there would be some protection for you regarding communicable diseases under the same laws. Best of luck.

Oh, and if you were just helping out...good for you. We need more people in this world that are willing to help a stranger.

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Originally Posted by Captain Gus

I am not horribly worried about infection (as I basically boiled my hands in chlorine last night), but I was wondering what a health care professional would do if faced with the same situation.

But thanks to all for the info.

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As a health care professional, if you are potentially exposed to biohazard material you are supposed to report it to your supervisor and then go through testing if you so choose. They might also give some sort of prophylatic drug treatment as well. I believe there are a battery of tests since some of blood borne diseases have an incubation time. So for example you ge tested soon after exposure and then again later on once the incubation period is over.

Well, ahhhh..hmmmmm. That's not exactly what I did.

Looks like the smart move is to get it checked out.

Thanks Vin and the rest of the posters.

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Originally Posted by Vinman

There is no way any one from the ER or any other medical facillity will tell you if the person has HIV or anything else. Privacy laws prevent medical personell from discussing anyones medical information with other people.

Your best bet is to get tested or if this is someone you know ask them if they know thier HIV/HBV status.

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Actually the state's health board is notifide if the person is HIV+, and the emt's at the scene should have taken the guys name that helped.

And you are correct that the Charge Nurse cannot tell of the patients HIV/AIDS status. But he/she can tell the guy if he should go get tested if he was exposed. I know this because I used to work in an Emergency room as a nurse in the inner city and have dealt with this issue many times.

And everyone should carry an emergency medical kit in their car with plastic gloves for just such emergency's. And remember that there is a 9 week window that HIV can set dormant, so for full effectiveness you need to get testing first then again later to be safe.

sure there are way to suggest, wink wink, nudge nudge, that a person should go get tested but that's not how you stated it in your first post.

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Originally Posted by Vinman

sure there are way to suggest, wink wink, nudge nudge, that a person should go get tested but that's not how you stated it in your first post.

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Ya it didn't come out right in the first post.

A similar scenario happened to me about 10 years ago.

Driving to the hospital at 06:30 AM I witnessed a black Trans Am (Smokey and the Bandit era) manuevering an exit ramp trying to make a 90-degree corner turn at 60mph. Needless to say, it all went badly.

The woman passenger was thrown and rolled over. After my abbreviated assessment (due to obvious injuries incompatible with life and the large amount of blood) I waited for EMS. A bystander rushed up and picked up her head, soaking her hands in blood. She screamed and grabbed my hand, bloodying my hand also. I had just returned from a week of crack climbing in Yosemite and had gobies all over my hands. Bummer.

The patient went to the same hospital where I worked. HIV and Hep C tests on both the patient and myself were done. All this was probably overkill as HIV infection on intact skin (well-scabbed) is very unlikely. My justification was that the victim was high-risk (indeed she was pan-positive on her drug screen) and I had injured skin.

If your skin was intact and the person is not high risk (how to know?) you would probably be safe in not worrying about it. If you are concerned, you can speak to the hospital and voice your concerns. You can demand a post-exposure test on the victim. This may be troublesome and inconvenient, but you have rights. You'll have to estimate your risk and go from there.