Published
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.
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.