Department of Pathology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
An unresponsive 55 year-old woman.
Clinical information:
The patient was a 55 year-old white woman with a history of chronic pain and hip replacement. She took opiate medication for her pain control. She was found unresponsive at home by her husband. Upon arrival of the emergency medical technicians, she was found asystolic and in respiratory arrest. The resuscitation was successful and she was transferred to the emergency department and further treated in the intensive care unit and maintained on a ventilator. She was mostly flaccid but there were also some decorticate posture. Her pupils were with fixed and dilated pupils. She remained unresponsive and her condition deterioriated. She died later the same day after another asystole and unsuccessful resuscitation. An autopsy was performed. Representative macroscopic and microscopic images are provided as follows:
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Cases of the Month Evaluation Coordinator: KarMing-Fung@ouhsc.edu