Question

A 24 year old female overdosed on an unknown substance. She is staring off into space, writhing. and babbling. When you apply painful stimulus, she cries out incomprehensibly but does not pull away. What is her GCS ?

Answer 1

The patient's GCS score would be 8, indicating a severe altered mental state due to an unknown substance overdose, requiring immediate medical intervention.

Step-by-step explanation:

The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) is a clinical tool used to assess a person's level of consciousness after a head injury or in the case of an overdose. The GCS assesses three aspects of a patient's responsiveness: eye, verbal, and motor responses. In the scenario described, where a 24-year-old female is overdose victim, staring off into space, writhing, and babbling, and cries out incomprehensibly to painful stimuli without pulling away, her GCS score would be calculated as follows:

• Eye response: 2 (Opens eyes to pain)
• Verbal response: 2 (Incomprehensible sounds)
• Motor response: 4 (Withdrawal from pain)

Adding these scores gives us a total GCS score of 8 (2+2+4). This indicates that the patient is in a severe altered mental state, which could potentially be life-threatening, and requires immediate medical attention.