An ambulance medic treats a scooter driver following a collision north of Quebec City, Thursday, Aug. 23 2007. (Jacques Boissinot/Canadian Press)
Aug. 22, 2007: A roadside bomb rips into a light armoured personnel carrier outside Khandahar, Afghanistan. Two Canadian soldiers and an interpreter are killed. A Radio-Canada camera journalist — Charles Dubois — suffers a serious leg injury. A second journalist from the CBC's French-language network — Patrice Roy — was described by military officials as being uninjured but being treated for shock.
A day later, Roy was visibly shaken but sufficiently recovered to describe the ordeal to reporters.
The term "shock" is used to describe a number of conditions, both medical and psychological.
What is shock?
Medically speaking, shock is a very specific term that refers to a situation where there is inadequate blood supply to maintain cellular needs. Blood circulates through the body to get oxygen and sugar and other important substances to every cell, and to take away other material that is waste.
Shock occurs when your blood pressure is too low to provide cells with the nourishment they need. Basically your cells are starving.
Dr. Howard Ovens of the department of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto says the term "shock" is used loosely by most people.
"Shock to lay people often means an emotional state of being emotionally traumatized whereas medically to most physicians, except maybe psychiatrists, shock would be a physical state of being acutely injured — it's a physical state that is life-threatening."
What causes shock?
There are three major causes of shock:
- Traumatic injury: you are badly injured and lose a lot of blood or you become severely dehydrated.
- Interference from a toxic agent: your body is fighting off bacteria or something you are allergic to.
- Weakened heart: you have enough blood in your body but your heart has been weakened to the point that it cannot pump the blood to its destination.
Psychogenic — or psychological — shock can occur after you are involved in or witness a traumatic event, but are otherwise uninjured. (Psychogenic shock can cause fainting, as has been dramatized in countless Hollywood productions.)
What are the symptoms of shock?
When your body goes into shock, you will suffer from extremely low blood pressure. Other symptoms include:
- Pale, cool and clammy skin.
- Anxiety, agitation or confusion.
- Dizziness, light-headedness or faintness.
- A rapid but weak pulse.
- Shallow breathing.
- Bluish lips or fingernails.
- Chest pain.
Symptoms are similar for psychogenic shock as it leads to a rapid drop in blood pressure.
How is shock treated?
It depends on what caused your shock. If you're suffering from severe blood loss, you will likely undergo blood transfusions once the bleeding has been controlled.
If your body went into anaphylactic shock after you ate a shrimp you were allergic to, for example, you might get a shot of epinephrine, which opens the airways and raises your blood pressure.
If you suspect someone is going into shock, you should:
- Call for medical help as soon as possible.
- Check the person's airway and breathing. You may have to perform rescue breathing or CPR.
- Get the person to lie flat on his/her back and raise the legs by about 30 centimetres. This helps restore blood pressure. If the person is suffering from anaphylactic shock, is conscious and is having trouble breathing, they should be in a sitting position.
- Stop bleeding by applying direct pressure to a wound.
- Keep the person warm and comfortable. Loosen any tight clothing.
Treatment for psychogenic shock can be more complicated. The person may seem fine at first, but severe trauma can cause psychological problems months or years later as post-traumatic stress disorder.
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