By Michael K. McIntyre
Plain Dealer
MAYFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — Dr. Don Spaner, an emergency physician at Hillcrest Hospital in Mayfield Heights, had a real medical mystery on his hands.
A local urgent-care center called: They had a blue patient. Blue, generally, is not good, unless you’re a Smurf.
Spaner quizzed the urgent-care doctor. The patient had no difficulty breathing, had no heart condition, and his blood oxygen was normal.
Odd, he thought. None of it pointed to an acute medical problem. But the urgent-care doctor already had sent the man in an ambulance to the ER. He was really blue.
Spaner, who last year spent time in Iraq patching up soldiers as a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves, has seen a lot of trauma cases, some extremely odd. But never anything like this.
One key question led to his diagnosis:
“Is that thing brand-new?”
He was referring to the robe the man was wearing.
“Yeah, how’d you know?” the patient replied.
“It’s the same color as your skin!”
An episode of “House” it was not. More like something out of “Scrubs.” The patient wasn’t dying, he was dyed. His new blue robe was discoloring his skin.
“The ER was laughing, absolutely howling. And the patient thought it was pretty funny,” said Spaner. “I hope his insurance company has a sense of humor, too.”
For Spaner, it turned out to be a good day in the ER: There was a “code blue.” And the patient survived.