DKA, HHS and the Order You Treat Them In

Both hyperglycaemic emergencies arrive looking urgent; the laboratory separates them and the sequence saves the patient. Read a panel and name the crisis, then run the resuscitation yourself — fluids first, the potassium decision second, insulin third, dextrose at 200 — and find out what happens when you start the drip on a patient whose potassium is 3.1. Then drill the emergency that kills fastest: hypoglycaemia.