This was received from a relative who is an emergency room MD at a hospital in Sacremanto, CA:

At MSJ we weigh infants in triage in kg.  Older children and adults are not
weighed but are asked their weight which they usually give in pounds.  We
then convert to kg for the chart and subsequent drug calculations.
Ironically the sickest babies come in by ambulance or are rushed into the
crash bay and are not weighed.  We have a Broselow tape which estimates
their weight (in kgs).  Sometimes we ask the parents the baby's weight in
pounds and then convert.  There is a lot of room for error in the tape and
conversion.
This is really an absurd situation! I had no idea of the hassle they go through to accomodate ifp measurements. This really would be a fertile area for the USMA to work on, it seems to me. If everyone needed to know their own weight (OK, mass for some of us) in order to deal with the medical system, it would go a long way to achieve metric awareness.

HARRY WYETH



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