Oxygen levels possibly hurt pt?!

Nurses General Nursing

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psu_213, BSN, RN

3,878 Posts

Specializes in Emergency, Telemetry, Transplant.
My instructor said that it looked like his body was shutting down- due to his lab values......

I really dislike this phrase (the italics part). If you ever watch the 'true' medical shows on TV (e.g. Mystery Diagnosis) they use this phrase way, way too often. In this case, you had a pt who was very sick. In addition to his respiratory issues it sounds like he also developed increased cardiac issues and AKI--not sure if the kidney issue was secondary to poor cardiac function or vice versa. Not to minimize his death, but there is a lot of interesting patho going on. Regardless, it was his chronic illnesses that caused his death, not a few seconds without supplemental oxygen.

blueheaven

832 Posts

You didn't make him sicker. He was dying. If you can't get through this, please talk with someone about it. A friend of mine with PH was on 100% non rebreather and talking to me and in a manner of minutes he was gone when he had an episode of coughing.

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