I was treating a day 1 THR with another therapist the other day. When talking to her while laying in bed apart from some pain everything was fine, all instructions understood and she was keen to get up and moving. Once standing up and a few metres away from the bed she was a bit quiet and i noticed her skin going plae. At that time she fainted and collapsed onto my knee luckily I was at arms reach of a chair and we placed her down into it. I was asked to get oxygen for her and as i turned to get it, she passed out completely, slipped through the grasp of the physio, off the chair and proceeded to dislocate her hip.
Obviously I found this somewhat of a frightening situation to be in with my first THR patient. This situation had never happened to me with a surgical patient before. In reflection perhaps it was the best thing to happen to me as a student. It has really reinforced the importance of monitoring the whole of the patient very closely after surgery and I find I am being more vigilant about it now. If i hadnt seen her face go pale, I might have dropped her - resulting in a fail for my clinic and probably a bad reputation in the hospital. Hopefully I wont have to experience this for a long time to come! (the patient is now doing fine you'll be glad to hear).
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Dramatic Accidents
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1 comment:
I had pretty much an exact same situation with a 92 yr following her hip replacement, she just suddenly stopped talkin to us and stopped responding and sat down without a chair onto my knee. then my supervisor and I managed to slide her back onto the chair, it was a good experience to have but not one I would wish for!!
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