Emergency Room Series -High Blood Pressure.

A lot of people are hypertensive and don’t know it. 

That’s because people hardly go for check-up. Even if one can’t afford to go to a hospital, you can have your blood pressure checked in a chemist or pharmacy for a low price. It goes a long way to show that you really care for your health. Hypertension is a slow killer if not detected early.

 Most people think that hypertension is as a result of stress but it is not in all cases. You might not have a stressful job, eat well and still have background hypertension, that type is common among those that have a wide family history of hypertension. 

A man in his early thirties was brought to the ER, he was bleeding heavily from his nose and mouth. He was brought in by his co-workers who said he was at his desk at work and was talking to a colleague who noticed streaks of blood coming out of his nose and raised an alarm. They said that after a while, he began to bleed from his mouth as well, fresh and heavy blood, but he remained conscious and was panicking. 

 We initially thought it was a case of a hemorrhagic fever, like Ebola and started to isolate him and even the people that came with him and got PPE gears ready to wear. It was after his vitals were checked that we knew we had to be dealing with something else, his blood pressure was terribly high, his pulse was normal, respiration normal and his temperature was good.

 High temperature is the main symptom of hemorrhagic fever so he didn’t have that. His blood pressure was above 200, it was too high and he must have ruptured a blood vessel that was why he was bleeding. The high pressure in his blood vessels even made it worse as the blood gushed with force. 

It’s like forcing too much air pressure into a balloon, it would swell and burst when it reaches its limit. Despite the fact that he was bleeding so much, he was still trying to explain what happened, his mouth was covered and dripping of blood, it was scary. He was told to be quiet. The doctors tried to stop the blood but they couldn’t locate the source of the bleed. 

We had to use pressure and low-dose injections that would clot his blood, but it didn’t have much effect. His cubicle was full of blood, looking like we just took an emergency child delivery there. Drips were put up to drop his blood pressure, his samples were taken for tests as well. His friends were panicking and worried, they were scared to come too close to him or touch him. I was equally scared, no jokes


Gradually, his blood pressure began to drop because of the mannitol drips, the blood became lesser and after about 45 mins of running back and forth, the blood stopped gusihing out...

An ENT doctor was called to attend to him. The source of the bleed had to be located. We were hoping it won’t be from somewhere sensitive like the blood vessels around the brain. When the ENT doctor came, he did his physical examination and concluded that the bleeding was coming from a blood vessel behind the nose. He then used a tongue depressor to pull the tongue down hoping to see deeper into the throat, then the patient coughed and the bleeding started again, we were back to square one!

This time, the blood was clotted and lumpy, because of the effect of the coagulants used. The ENT doctor broke bottles of adrenaline into cotton wool wrapped in gauze and stuffed it into the patient’s mouth and cotton wool into the nostrils, one nostril at a time. He elevated the head and did some head maneuvers. Then bleeding then stopped again. 

He was told to wash out his mouth to get rid of the blood. When asked if he knew he was hypertensive, he said no and that although his parents are, he thought it was an illness of the elderly. From his history, he hardly checks his blood pressure, takes alcohol, smokes and doesn’t exercise.

 He had an ECG and ECHO done but there wasn’t really any abnormality asides the ones common among hypertensive patients. He is to also have a CT-Scan done. I count him lucky to be alive. If it were to be a brain vessel that got affected, that would be the end, if he didn’t die immediately, he would have a severe stroke and would scar him for life.


A lot of young people are hypertensive these days without knowing, it is no longer a disease of the elderly as the general population thinks. It is important you have your bp checked at least once in 3 months no matter how busy you are, local pharmacies offer such services at very low prices. There’s no greater gift than a good health.

*WOW,thank you for this piece Dearie.....