Blood Glucose of 1700!!!

Nurses General Nursing

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short story: my mother-in-law was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes this week, she ended up in the er, and her blood sugar was 1700!!!!!

what is the highest blood glucose you have seen?

long story: what makes matters worse, is that she had a some labs including a 12 hr fasting blood glucose test on last wednesday at her doctors office, her doctor told her they would call her if there was any problems with the results. (this was all unknown to me until this past monday) she had been feeling sick all week and thought she had the flu.

the first i heard about the situation was monday morning, she called telling us she was real sick, and weak etc... and she thinks she has diabetes.

i said, why do you think you have diabetes? she said, i got some lab results in the mail yesterday and my blood sugar was high, my doctor told me that they would call me if there were any problems but they never called me? i asked her what the result was and she said 359. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire my blood began to boil, i'm thinking to myself, how could a clinic let this result slip through the cracks and go six days without followup and treatment??? one of her daughters was on her way over there to bring her some things). meanwhile, i called the clinic very upset and wanted to talk to the drs office, to see how this was missed? they said they would leave a message and have the doctors office call me when he was done seeing pts.

shortly after my call, she gets a call from someone, she couldnt remember who telling her that she needs to go to the hospital soon to get checked out for her high test result (6 days latter but about an hour after my call :angryfire ) she ended going to the er via 911 because she was so weak and that is when they found her bg was 1700!!

thankfully the hospital was able to stablize her after several hours and remained monitored in icu and should be going home today or tomorrow. so my questions to you are:

  1. what's the highest bg you have seen in a patient?
  2. how would your clinic have handled this?
  3. what is your facilities protocal for high lab results that obviously need attention?

    i plan on contacting the clinic and following up with them so this kind of error does not happen again to someone else. please feel free to offer suggestions. tia!

Specializes in Med/Surg.
short story: my mother-in-law was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes this week, she ended up in the er, and her blood sugar was 1700!!!!!

what is the highest blood glucose you have seen?

long story: what makes matters worse, is that she had a some labs including a 12 hr fasting blood glucose test on last wednesday at her doctors office, her doctor told her they would call her if there was any problems with the results. (this was all unknown to me until this past monday) she had been feeling sick all week and thought she had the flu.

the first i heard about the situation was monday morning, she called telling us she was real sick, and weak etc... and she thinks she has diabetes.

i said, why do you think you have diabetes? she said, i got some lab results in the mail yesterday and my blood sugar was high, my doctor told me that they would call me if there were any problems but they never called me? i asked her what the result was and she said 359. :angryfire :angryfire :angryfire my blood began to boil, i'm thinking to myself, how could a clinic let this result slip through the cracks and go six days without followup and treatment??? one of her daughters was on her way over there to bring her some things). meanwhile, i called the clinic very upset and wanted to talk to the drs office, to see how this was missed? they said they would leave a message and have the doctors office call me when he was done seeing pts.

shortly after my call, she gets a call from someone, she couldnt remember who telling her that she needs to go to the hospital soon to get checked out for her high test result (6 days latter but about an hour after my call :angryfire ) she ended going to the er via 911 because she was so weak and that is when they found her bg was 1700!!

thankfully the hospital was able to stablize her after several hours and remained monitored in icu and should be going home today or tomorrow. so my questions to you are:

  1. what's the highest bg you have seen in a patient?
  2. how would your clinic have handled this?
  3. what is your facilities protocal for high lab results that obviously need attention?

    i plan on contacting the clinic and following up with them so this kind of error does not happen again to someone else. please feel free to offer suggestions. tia!

:eek:!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the highest i have ever seen was 700-750ish

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Specializes in HH/LTC/WM.

I had a very brittle diabetic pt. Go in at 4pm and take her blood sugar, it may be 22, Which ironically is the lowest I have ever had, May come back later and it is 400+. Well anyways I went into her room at 4pm one day and as usual her blood sugar was out of whack, I knew before i even stuck her finger. The results sayed high...i remebered that our glucometers cut off at around 540. Thinking this couldnt be right, I went and got another glucometer. Same reading high. The pt had her eyes open, but wasnt acting right. I called the M.D. He told me to give her 10 units of regular and call him back in 1hour with results. I observed her for the whole hour. Glucometer reading still said high. I called him back and he said send her to E.R. Later that night the hospital sent over the lab....1640, this was after her 10units of reg. Scared the hell outta me. She came back 2 days later. She lived about another year.

Anytime we get any kinda critical levels from the lab we call M.D., and alot of times the nurse tries to field the call I say No I need to talk to M.D.this way he cant say well i never got that message. It usually ends in a trip to the ER.

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A diabetic girl from home was found dead in her bed (19 years old), her hands covering her mouth, blood everywhere from bleeding at the mouth/nose, and a blood glucose of 1700.

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Whatever happened to calling critical results? Lab calls MD office, office calls pt. It's that simple.

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My brother is a diabetic and has been for about 15 years and his sugar goes up to 1600 alot from him not taking care of his self. When his gets this high he can't walk, it paralysis his lower extremities. In fact we just took him to the hospital a few days ago with this and his sugars were over 1600 and pulse was 28. I just knew he was going to die, how he has pulled out of it is only by the grace of God.

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Specializes in Trauma ICU, MICU/SICU.
My brother is a diabetic and has been for about 15 years and his sugar goes up to 1600 alot from him not taking care of his self. When his gets this high he can't walk, it paralysis his lower extremities. In fact we just took him to the hospital a few days ago with this and his sugars were over 1600 and pulse was 28. I just knew he was going to die, how he has pulled out of it is only by the grace of God.

Sounds like he needs an insuiln pump.

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He does need the insulin pump, but we can't get a doctor to do it. They keep saying since he is blind, deaf and in kidney failure it is a waste of time. I told them he is still human and should have all the chances just as anybody else. These doctors here really are a bit off since hurricane Katrina hit here. We just keep praying one will help us soon.

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Specializes in Flight, ER, Transport, ICU/Critical Care.

2200ish. I don't remember the exact 22??, but that impressed me. But, the fact that it was +2200 stuck in my head.

It was confirmed by the lab in separate samples, each test repeated for accuracy. The number actually surprised us all.

30ish, otherwise healthy, incarcerated male. He was not known to be diabetic, symptoms over a week with progressive polys, some MS changes (he was a bit blunted) but overall tolerating it pretty well. Glad someone actually thought it was time for the ED!

Good clinical outcome. D/C'ed from ICU/Medical service after 5 days.

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I work in veterinary medicine. Dogs and cats do get diabetes and we do see our share of type 2 because of lifestyle. The highest glucose that I have seen was 900. It was in a 12 year old cat that weighed 21 pounds. The cat was also ketoacidotic (imagine that). We stabilized kitty on fluids and insulin. He is doing great with his diet and exercise program. He is down to a suave 12 pounds and receives 2 units of insulin BID. We tried to wean him off of the insulin but couldn't.

We inform clients about their pet's lab results within 24 hours. We do in-house testing for most of our routine procedures. Most times the clients are informed sooner. Many times the client waits around for the results especially if the patient is really sick. We can usually have results within 1/2 hour, unless it's a send out.

If the results are in normal range, the client is contacted by one of the CVT's (certified veterinary technician). The veterinarian contacts the client concerning abnormal results. Normal and abnormal results are reported to the client period!

I hope that your mother in law is doing better. I get really frustrated in human medicine because things like this happen a lot. We have clients asking the veterinarian about their medical problems because their own doctor cannot or will not explain things to them adequately. I know that when I have had lab work done, it takes forever to find anything out. Most times I don't even get a phone call, a copy of the results--nothing. When I call, I get the run around from person to person. It's frustrating being a human patient. I guess medicine just treats animals better.

Fuzzy, CVT

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Specializes in NICU, Infection Control.

I wonder if there's a Guiness Book of Records for critical lab results (requiring the pt to survive, of course).

How's she doing, Brian? Better, I hope!!

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Wow thats high i am surprised that the lab overlooked that.I hope everything is ok.

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I admited a patient from the ER with a sugar that was 2600 verified by 2 different lab tests and the patient walked from the ER gurney to the ICU bed by his own power with just a little bit of stabalization!

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