hi there,.. i am new at this, so bare with me. but i jus started my first anatomy course.. and i am needing serious help with my first case study! i understand the story line and all that.. but to try to simplify it, a lady had put distilled water into an iv instead of normal saline.. she asks why the patient's oxygen levels fell and his heart rate increases (the patient).. we are studying osmosis.. which i get..but it is kind of hard to explain without me repeating my answer to the first question-- something about hypotonic and hypertonic solutions..and isotonic.. someone please help if you can! i will greatly appreciate it! =d

-chelsea:confused:

Thread moved to pre-nursing area. Hopefully some other students will offer some good suggestions.

Wow, this is just the beginning of anatomy for you? This sounds like something I would have learned way down the line but if you are just taking about osmosis then maybe it can be explained this way: By adding distilled water, a water solution with no solutes, the water in the blood vessels, is going to move OUT of the blood vessels towards the interstital or intercellular areas. This is going to shift the fluid volume in the blood vessel so the patient will become hypovolemic (lowered blood/fluid volume), blood pressure will drop, and the patient will go into shock. Blood w/the oxygen its carrying will be shunted away from the peripheral areas of the body. The heart is going to try to compensated by beating faster in order to raise the blood pressure.

I don't think I fully understood any of this until taking my last term of A&P so I'm not sure what your instructor may be looking for. Just know that the water is going to move towards the vessel with the highest concentration of solute.

Okay.,. yes I think this is exactly what she is looking for! Thank you so much! I appreciate it!.. But yes this is my first A&P..after this semester I am applying to nursing school..it seems like it is going to be so hard,.. I have lecture and a 3 hour lab. But thanks again!! (: