Case study

It’s summertime in one of the years of the 2020’s, and it’s been a while since you completed your education, and have been practicing in the healthcare field. For quite a while now, you and your former A&P classmates have been trying to plan a vacation trip to the beach in Florida. Finally, everyone has been able to get time off work for the vacation weekend.

You get to Clearwater, Fl and are enjoying yourselves at the beach. There are lots of food and drinks – barbeque, salads, sandwiches, bottled water, all sorts of juices and soda, as well as alcoholic beverages. Many are enjoying themselves as they ride the waves to compete for the trophy in the surfing championship.While enjoying the occasion, you see five people swimming with difficulty to the shore.

At first glance, you take them to be part of the competing, since many at the beach are. However, as they emerge from the water, you notice their attire is quite different from everyone else’s, and two of them show signs of being disoriented.

You approach them, and they inform you that their boat capsized, for some strange reason. They tell you they have not ingested anything for quite a long time (almost 24 hours), and although the water is warm (thus very little chance of hypothermia), they were in it for almost twelve hours before developing the courage to swim approximately five miles to the shore.

Because you and your friends decided you would not want anything to do with work during the long-planned vacation, you did not carry any emergency kits with you, and in addition, there is no hospital/clinic close by where they could be taken and examined/treated. Calling 911 at that moment would not be the best emergency solution because of a major construction that has blocked a big area to the beach.

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1. What would be the first (most important) thing you would do/suggest doing (besides getting them to sit) as you and your friends try to help them. Also state the reason why you would do/suggest what you propose.

2. Cellular transport is probably the most important aspect of life. What form of cellular transport (active or passive) occurred between the five and their environment from the time their boat capsized until the time they got to the shore?

3. What is the scientific term used to described the specific process/principle/concept/transport that occurred between the bodies of the five people whose boat capsized, and the environment they found themselves in?

4. The reason we eat, and the reason we breathe is to make ATP. In aerobic organisms such as humans, approximately 38 ATPs can be formed from 1 molecule of glucose that is aerobically metabolized. Different processes that occur in the body require different amounts of ATP. Approximately how much ATPs was required for the correct answer to question 3 above to occur?

5. Using the conditions in the passage, referring to them in scientific terms (the different tonicities), describe in full detail the (principle/process that occurred between the bodies five people whose boat capsized, and they environment they found themselves in) answer you gave to Question 3. This explanation, if done correctly, should support the right suggestion for question 1.