5/31/12

Interesting day yesterday. 

I was at work.  A pretty sick patient comes in.  Not communicating verbally, from a nursing home with a history of dementia.  Not sure if he normally talks.  Physician orders a standard type treatment.  Nurse administers treatment.  Treatment appears to make patient worse.  Nurse doesn't like this and decides to monitor patient more closely.  Nurse sees patient growing much worse, much faster. Nurse gets doctor and pulls him from other patients. 

Doctor doesn't like what he sees and comes quickly to same conclusion nurse suggests.  Changes treatment tactics as standard treatment previously prescribed may have contributed to patient condition change.

Now the patient is in real distress.  As in, life or death distress.  The nurse is not leaving the room.  Constant monitoring and heading back to the doctor to ask for new interventions to help the patient.  After an hour the patient finally stabilizes enough that the nurse can leave the room.  Another hour or so and we have a  room and get ready to take the patient up. 

Here is where the cool part is.  The patient is now speaking coherently.  Awake and alert and oriented.  Asks where he is and laughs at some of the things I told him he was saying when he was distressed.  Apparently he was surprised at who he is calling out to for help.  Another nurse comes in to relieve me for lunch and the patient listens as I report off about everything that has happened.  Patient grows very quiet, looks me straight in the eye and solemnly says, "Thank you."  Makes my day. 

Off to work again.