Assess patient's complaints for associated signs or pertinent negatives

Dig deep during the assessment to either rule out or rule in specific traumatic injury or illness


Our patient had fallen from his roof. He was supine on his driveway with C-spine stabilization, held by an emergency medical responder. The patient was awake, oriented and had normal vitals. In addition to asking OPQRST questions about pain, I wanted to learn if he had any associated symptoms of a spinal cord injury.

The patient denied:

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