This is an account of one such day
Jerry E Smith
April 29, 2013
Today was a first; one I hope will not repeat.
The Lady I was to Escort to the Vascular Clinic for a follow up, was on the potty when I got there (to the Nursing Home).
I was told she could "stand and pivot", and this proved to be true, for the most part.
We waited for Transport, and then got to the Dr.'s ofc in plenty of time.
Then the call came in that the Dr. had been held up at the hosp.(this ofc was IN the hosp. building).
We would have an additional, minimum of 45 min extra wait.
She began complaining that she was dizzy, that she wanted her blood sugar checked (she was Diabetic), but it might be that she had been given a pain pill before we left.
The personnel at the Clinic were very helpful, and came up with a Glucometer, and her sugar checked out high, but okay.
Then, she said she needed to go to the potty again(to do # 2) so I took her to the ladies room, helped her stand and she got her pants down and got onto the stool. I stepped out of the stall to give her privacy.
After a few min. she called out to see if I was still there (of course I was), then a few min later, said that she thought she was going to PASS OUT. (this is a LARGE woman)...
I tried to make sure she wasn't going to "fall out", then we tried to get her to stand so I could get her to her wheel chair. No go....
So, I did my best to make sure she was leaning against the wall so IF she did pass out, at least she wouldn't fall to the floor, pulled off my gloves and went back to the clinic to get help.
One male aide came, with more gloves for me, but the TWO of us couldn't get this lady up; it finally took three grown men to get her up, pull up her pants and into the wheelchair.
Now, I started trying to call the Nursing Home, to get some directions on what to do: should we go back and reschedule? but the phone to the NH was busy( they have about 5 lines; they all couldn't be busy at once, not on more than one attempt). Their phones were DOWN!
All this while, the Dr finally got to where he could see us.
We were there in the first place because she had all the toes on her right foot amputated due to her Diabetes. This was a follow up to that surgery. When the Doc removed the dressing, the "big toe" and the one next to it, were healing fine, no redness, but the other three were almost black, and the tissue above it was purplish.
He said; "OH MY! This is not good"...all this, combined with their inability to get a BP on her, AND this passing out business, caused the Doc to say:"take her to the ER".
So, they dressed her foot, and I wheeled her through the hospital, to the other side of the world it seemed, and checked her into the ER.
I had never been able to get in touch with the Nursing Home, so I called the Transport Driver(one of the few that I have their personal cell #) and asked him to stop in at the Nursing Home, tell them I had been unable to get through to them, and ask them how I was going to get back! He did all this, and called me to say he would pick me up, with her wheelchair, and take me back to the facility.
So, I left with a patient to a Dr. appointment, and left her in the ER. I hope to not have to experience THIS again.
Post script, this patient died after a couple of days in the Hospital from sepsis
"A Day In the Life"
by
Jerry E Smith
©04/29/2023
image is original