I had a similar situation. I was doing a wound eval (broken down flaps on
bilat. trochs.) on a vented gentleman on our subacute unit. He seemed a bit
cold, but that would not have been unusual in his condition. I knew he was
unresponsive. I couldn't find a pulse in his wrist, but that has never been
my strength, and many patient down there had a weak one anyways. Checking for
breathing was irrelevant, since he was on a vent.90 minutes after I started
the eval, I looked for the chart to put my final paperwork into the chart,
complete with a page of possibile treatments for conservative versus
aggressive depending on doc's preference. I found the chart in front of the
charge nurse, as she was calling the doc to notify him of the patient's
death.I was wondering if he died before, or during, my eval. The RT then told
me (the next day!) that he had suctioned him and he was alive after I left the
room. Happened while I was documenting. (I did recommend conservative treatment).
Renee
Michael Warburton wrote:
>
> You've never lived Mike!
>
> A colleague I trained with once did an assessment on a dead patient for a
> full 30 minutes before realising that they should be getting a bit more
> cooperation than they were.
>
> Needless to say a home exercise program wasn't required on that occasion!
>
> Michael Warburton
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Thursday, November 25, 1999 10:16 AM
> Subject: Re: Moving and handling the deceased
>
> >physio for the dead never heard anything like it!
> >
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