I'm sorry for the long post, but this was a new one for me...
Yesterday, at about 5am I was in my office when I heard an urgent overhead page from the rehab wing. I ran down the hall, and a resident was at the nurses station in a wheelchair, having a grand mal seizure. He was not breathing. His lower dentures were on his shirt, and something told me to get his upepr dentures. I pulled his head up and stuck my hand in his mouth... nothing. I stuck my hand further down his throat, and could barely feel the edge of them, deep in his airway. I was able to force my hand in enough to pinch the edge between two fingers and pull them out of his throat, at which time he took a huge gasping breath and stopped seizing. He was still unresponsive, though, and remained so throughout the incident until he was taken out by the ambulance.
What I want to know, has anyone else ever seen this happen? I swear it had to be God telling me to get his dentures, because I have never seen or heard about someone's dentures doing that. Somehow they had flipped over and gone down front first, so they were shaped like a "U" in his throat, completely occluding the airway. I believe he had a major CVA, because he had decerebrate posturing and his left side was sagging. I'm still shaky at what could have happened if I hadn't thought of his dentures, we would have sent him out with them lodged in his throat.
What I want to know, has anyone else ever seen this happen? I swear it had to be God telling me to get his dentures, because I have never seen or heard about someone's dentures doing that.Has anyone ever seen or heard of this???
Thank you everyone for all the encouraging comments... honestly I don't feel like I can take credit for it, I still don't understand how I knew they were there. I really believe the Lord spoke to me!!!
It seems like this is news to a lot of nurses, so I'm glad I posted. Maybe it will save more lives someday. I just would never have thought that the TOP dentures would do that!
banditrn
1,249 Posts
Lori - yes, God was talking to you!! Amazing isn't it, what can go wrong!! Now that I work in LTC, I'll pay special attention to those dentures.