Materials and Methods- Medical Emergencies

These are emergencies that can occur during needling and some ways to avoid and react to them.

1. Stuck or bent needle
- stuck due to muscle cramps or patient movement or muscle binds to needle.
What to do:

• Let it sit.
• Massage around the area
• insert another needle an inch away
• shake needle
• pull with direction of bend

2. Broken Needle
-due to sudden movement, muscle contraction, excess force, forcing a stuck needle
What to do:

• Tweezers
• push flesh on each side of needle
• send patient to hospital if it doesn't come out

3. Fainting

• Less likely if patient is laying down
• signs: dizziness, nausea, loss of color, cold sweats, shortness of breath
  

What to do:

• remove needles
• have patient lie down
• remove restricted clothing
• GV6, KD1

Precautions:

• make sure eaten
• talk out what you're doing
• watch people change positions

4. Accidental Injuries
1. Lung-pneumothorax
- puncturing cavity, collapsed lung

• signs: tightness and pain in chest, shortness of breath, raspy breathing
• what to do: lie down and hospitalize
• to avoid: be careful needling chest and back

2. Brain and Spinal Chord
- too deeply on back of head and vertebrae

• symptoms: electrical surge
• to avoid: be careful with angle and depth
• what to do: hospitalize

3. Liver, Spleen, Kidney
- check frame and be careful of angle and depth

• signs: liver and spleen : local pain, radiating towards back with abdominal pain
• signs: kidney: pain on waist and blood in urine
  

5. Nerve Pathway
- strong sensation (distal)
- remove needle

6. Hemotoma
- Puncture superficial blood vessel

• swells, bruise that disappears eventually
• apply pressure to keep from bruising
• ice the area or moxa the area

7. Moxa burns/heat lamp burns

• heat lamps - no long unattention
• check for red
• touch body to check temp
• Moxa- add shield if moxa is unsteady or too hot