Dayum October 20, 2007
Posted by keepbreathing in Uncategorized.trackback
It always amazes me how a combination of socioeconomic status, bad genes and phenomenally poor self-care skills can gang up on someone and kill them.
Today I received a new patient from the ER in the unit I was working. I did not get to spend much time with her, but that was fine because (1) I had many things to do and (2) even though she was intubated she was sort of annoying. She was in her early forties in age, plump but not obese, poor but not homeless.
She had the most astonishing collection of maladies I have ever seen in such a young person. She was the proud owner of one and a half legs and a marvelously browned set of decaying teeth. She had pulmonary fibrosis (how the hell she got that I’ve no idea) as well as CHF, chronic renal failure, diabetes, a recent bypass graft, and just today an enormous CVA that has spattered her brains against the inside of her skull.
How the hell did she get this bad? People live twice as long with half as many diagnoses…
If she stays in the hospital long enough she might end up with nosocomial COPD>
I think many of us have made this observation.
About 8 years ago an elderly and experienced CCU nurse said about a similar patient as you describe here, “I’m sick and tired of taking care of people who end up here because they don’t take care of themselves.” I got mad at him for saying that and even complained to his boss.
Come full circle, now I find myself thinking the same thing at times (not that I would treat these patients any different than my other patients, nor verbally complain about them.)