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Ally Ronson – A CBC Test Story that saves lives

“I need to do a Complete blood count checkup right away.” With these words, an inhabitant of Greater London, a town of just over 1,800 inhabitants, confidently turned to the pharmacist, whose intervention saved his life.

The story’s protagonist with a happy ending is Ally Ronson, owner of the local Pharmacy, who tells us how the events unfolded on a quiet Tuesday at the end of August.

• Doctor Ronon, let’s go in order: what happened on August 19?

Here in the village, we all know each other a little. I received a phone call from a citizen whom a specialist had already treated for some liver problems: “My doctor told me to do a checkup urgently.” Therefore, without thinking twice, I opened the Pharmacy (it was closing day) and immediately” had the patient do the requested Complete Blood Canalysis; this is a checkup we normally provide as a service to our customers. The numbers returned by the exam were very worrying: haemoglobin at 5, hematocrit at 15 (the normal value is close to 40). In practice, the mass available to the patient was almost zero.

• What did you do then?

We called the specialist treating the patient, who immediately suggested a complete blood count CBC test. Let’s say the situation was truly critical; there was a risk that the patient would not make it. And he was very pale, totally powerless; he could barely walk and struggled to speak. His heart was beating, but in practice, there “was very little blood circulating and oxygen “ching the organs and tissues. All the rescuers and the specialist opted for a trip to the hospital’s emergency room, about 40 minutes away. Along the way, the specialist called the patient every 15 minutes to update him on his condition. However, when he arrived at the hospital, seeing the report carried out at the Pharmacy, the doctors admitted him urgently, and he immediately underwent a transfusion.

• Did we find out in the CBC Blood Test what this lack of circulating was due to?

After stabilizing him, the hospital doctors carried out several tests and were able to ascertain the presence of ongoing gastrointestinal bleeding.

• Do you have any Complete Blood Count news on how the patient is now?

I know he’s stabilized. However, he had to undergo several transfusions. Also, from what I’m told, he received five bags.

Shortly, if it weren’t for you that day to open the Pharmacy and be able to have the exam done, this store would have been so much different. But don’t you feel a bit like a hero?

And the small pharmacies in very small towns, like the one I work in, are a reference for people’s health far from the big cities. There, they can turn to other healthcare centres.

Furthermore, the timeliness and reliability of an important analysis (such as the complete blood count) are an added value for the Pharmacy. And as for being a hero… well, there are other heroes. Certainly, social cohesion and civic solidarity – and the Pharmacy represents a fundamental player – allow us to deal with small and large problems. After all, the facts in the stories of health emergencies in remote areas are not that rare.

Meaning what?

But it comes to my memory, not long ago, a patient for whom I did an ECG, which showed a rate of 30 beats per minute. We quickly took her to the hospital for a Check. She had a complete atrioventricular block. She had a pacemaker to avoid cardiac arrest. I can also mention another case in which an ECG taken during the night revealed an ongoing heart attack in an elderly patient. Another provincial story with a happy ending. There are many of them.