A 70 Year-Old Woman with Postoperative Hypotension

A helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) crew was dispatched for an interfacility transfer of an intubated patient from an outside hospital emergency department (ED) to an intensive care unit (ICU) at the regional tertiary center. The dispatch center reported that the patient was a female in her 70s who was hypotensive from presumed septic shock and on 2 vasopressors at the time of the requested transfer. No further information was available before HEMS arrival. Robert Whitford, MD, is a third-year emergency medicine resident at the University of Cincinnati and flight physician with UC Health Air Care in Cincinnati, OH. Elizabeth K. Powell, MD, is an attending physician and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Cincinnati, a flight physician with UC Health Air Care and Mobile Care, the associate medical director of Air Care, and the medical director of Mobile Care. Peter V.R. Tilney, DO, FACEP, EMT-P, is a board-certified emergency physician at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. He is also a medical director for LifeFlight of Maine and can be reached at [email protected]