Interesting night last night..

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

In my two years of nursing, I had yet to see a patient have a seizure...right in front of me. So last night I was working my contingent job which is on a stepdown unit. And had a patient who was 78 yo with a diagnosis of CHF and COPD exacerbation. He was also on Coumadin for Afib. So I'm in the room, putting some stuff away, chit chatting with the patient who by the way is alert and oriented x 3. I turn around for a moment away from the patient and then turn back and his face is twitching.

It would start on the left side and then move over to the right side. The whole time he is still a/o x3. So I called our unit's PA and tell her to come quickly I think the patient is seizing. She comes to evaluate the patient and we call the house physcian also. He comes, evaluates the patient. I switched into ICU nurse mode sort of and start inserting an 18 gauge IV and draw some coags and a CBC. Sent the patient with the STAT nurse to CT scan of the head. She came back and said, "you might want to call the doc, they found a bleed"..

:no::no::no::no:

Called the house doc and told him what the nurse told me, he calls the radiologist and sure enough there are two small bleeds. He then orders 2 units of FFP which I give before sending the patient to ICU. It was a crazy night last night but the charge nurse said, "you were moving sooo fast. Thank god you were here tonight"

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Specializes in Telemetry/Med Surg.

Great job!!!

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Wonderful, wonderful job! Events like this help you improve the care you provide and give you reasons why you have become a nurse (in times when you doubt your career).

Great job... keep up the good work.

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.

Thank you very much. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to call the PA. I just kept looking at the guy for a few moments and thinking "what the **** going on with his face?". I definately feel more confident.

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

It's great how some of us switch into "Battle Mode" when the poo hits the fan...

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Specializes in Rehab.

Awesome Job!!! :yeah:

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Specializes in LTC, wound care.

Wow, just think about your quick action, and the difference that this might make long term to this patient! You were awesome and made the universe better by helping this man so quickly. Good for you and good for him!

If only "regular" people knew about these kind of things that nurses do, that can make all the difference in the world.

Kudos to you...

:yeah:

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great job, michigan.:balloons:

me thinks too much coumadin?

leslie

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Great job!!

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Specializes in ICU/Critical Care.
Wow, just think about your quick action, and the difference that this might make long term to this patient! You were awesome and made the universe better by helping this man so quickly. Good for you and good for him!

If only "regular" people knew about these kind of things that nurses do, that can make all the difference in the world.

Kudos to you...

:yeah:

I agree. Sadly I won't be back there until two months from now so I won't know the outcome. I hope he is ok. They took him to ICU for monitoring so he could be alright.

Awesome Job!!! :yeah:

Thank you

It's great how some of us switch into "Battle Mode" when the poo hits the fan...

I totally switched into battle mode. It was awesome.

great job, michigan.:balloons:

me thinks too much coumadin?

leslie

I think he got 10mg at dinnertime. His INR was 1.7

Great job!!

Thank you

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I think he got 10mg at dinnertime. His INR was 1.7

guess it wasn't the coumadin.:rolleyes:

anyways, you're on top of your game.

leslie

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Specializes in Cardiac Care.

I agree with everyone here; you were spot on!!! Congratulations; you undoubtedly saved that patient's life!

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