One of my patients that I was taking care of was in for ETOH abuse, ascites, and cirrhosis recently passed away. He was living in a assisted living facility where I was working at and based on what I got from report, he came back to the facility the previous night intoxicated. The last time he was seen alive was today at around noon where he asked to take his lunch back to his room. When the health care provider told me to go to the patient's room stat (this was around 7 in the evening), I found him not breathing, on his side, his face swollen. We called 911 and I tried to perform CPR on the patient, but his muscles where stiff and I couldn't separate his arms (it was fixated in a overlapping position). I then attempted to open his mouth, but it was tightly shut. I couldn't even barely get him on his back. The paramedic on the phone told me to keep on doing chest compressions until the paramedics arrive on the scene. I'm still in shock by this incident (I am still a new grad nurse also working at a hospital) and I can't believe that this patient that I've been taking care of for months actually died (this patient had a very friendly and caring attitude to everyone), so yeah, I'm in the dumps right now. Sorry I got sidetracked, but I was researching online on rigor mortis, because I am assuming that this is the condition the patient was in when I arrived to the scene and I just wanted feedback if my actions were valid in this situation?
