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So the young lady that I called an ambulance for last Friday fainted again today. They called me and she was sitting in a wheelchair pale & with a headache. I immediately got her on the floor with her feet up & her B/P was 120/48. Called mom who said the doc said follow the care plan. The plan states she is to rest until she feels better and then go back to class.
So while she was resting, one of the AP's pulled up the video of her fainting in the hallway. It happened between classes. She and a friend were leaning over the school store counter. The video shows her first sitting down with her head between her knees--this is the plan for when she feels faint. Then she gets up, leans over the counter to look into the store again. Then she stands up straight, falls back, hands at her side, hits her but & head HARD. No hands reflexively reaching out to stop the fall.
It was a horrifying thing to watch. A picture really is worth a thousand words. So I said that her mom really needs to see what is happening. When I checked on her again, she was still pale and with a headache. She has had a headache for weeks now & is not sleeping due to the pain. A PA saw her in the ER last Friday after I had her transported for the fainting, headache, and super low B/P & could find nothing. He said don't send her back unless something different happens. Just follow the care plan
The family pushed for a CT but it showed nothing. She is scheduled soon for a full body MRI & has an appointment with a neurologist after that.
I called mom back & said that she needed to come see the videos we had of her fainting--we also had one from last week when she fainted in the hallway...I told her we can't keep having her hit her head like this & I didn't feel comfortable keeping her at school after hitting her head like that again... I said she needed someone to monitor her for concussion symptoms--NO ONE has mentioned a concussion after all of this!! Or even the possibility of it!!
She took her daughter to see the NP after she left. Our SRO sent the video to the NP. I don't know the results of that visit yet.
ANYhow...I just got a message from her AP who has set up a safety meeting with me, mom, and the principal in the morning. But seriously, I am at a loss!!! What else can we do? This young lady is trying to take steps to sit down & rest, but she isn't always able to predict it and is feeling so badly that I question whether she should be in school right now.
Thoughts anyone? I don't feel like I have much to offer for the safety meeting except please keep her home or get her a helmet until something is done for her medically to stop this!!
BTW, she has had these fainting episodes for a couple of years. But iit was rather infrequent & has now ratcheted way up in the past month. Parents thought she was doing it for attention. But no way in MY mind a person could fall backward like that and not reflexively reach out your hands to stop your head from hitting full force.
My daughter had something similar going on when she was about that age. We live in the south so we never wear real shoes - flip flops are our shoes. She would routinely get extremely lightheaded and we would lay her down in stores if necessary. She would often crawl into a buggy so she wouldn't fall. After she face planted off of a golf cart into the road and cracked her head open which required staples - she was seen by both a cardiologist and a neurologist. Neither could ever find anything conclusive. She and I both suffer from migraines, but they determined this wasn't related to migraines. The only clue we had to impending fainting was her feet would get bright red - it was as if all the blood literally drained to her feet, which caused her to get woosy. We really started paying attention to her feet and it helped give us a little more warning. She was able to safely sit / lay down to prevent the fainting part. We had her start eating a tablespoon of peanut butter every day and taking a multi-vitamin. Her iron wasn't low, but the episodes seemed to happen more frequently during her cycle. As she became more "regular", the episodes eventually stopped.
Fascinating, hurricanekat!! So glad your daughter came through it without serious injury!!
Me too - the day she cracked her head - she was lying in the middle of the road that cars routinely speed down. We were so lucky she wasn't run over because the kids left her to come get me (they did make sure the golf cart was out of the road though). I wish I had a better answer. My daughter was homeschooled, so she was never really alone. I know its getting cold in many parts of our world now, but maybe keeping an eye on her feet too would help her out a little bit too. Not sure how you would bring that topic up though with her and her family... we really only put the connection together because she was wearing flip flops and her feet were bright red - like they had been dipped in hot water.
As far as a safety plan, I'd make her have a buddy like in kindergarten if thats possible. We were very lucky because I was always almost always there - at least I don't remember her fainting without me around - except the golf cart incident. I wish ya'll luck. I know this is a difficult time for everyone involved.
Specializes in Education, FP, LNC, Forensics, ED, OB.
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bitter_betsy, BSN
456 Posts
My daughter had something similar going on when she was about that age. We live in the south so we never wear real shoes - flip flops are our shoes. She would routinely get extremely lightheaded and we would lay her down in stores if necessary. She would often crawl into a buggy so she wouldn't fall. After she face planted off of a golf cart into the road and cracked her head open which required staples - she was seen by both a cardiologist and a neurologist. Neither could ever find anything conclusive. She and I both suffer from migraines, but they determined this wasn't related to migraines. The only clue we had to impending fainting was her feet would get bright red - it was as if all the blood literally drained to her feet, which caused her to get woosy. We really started paying attention to her feet and it helped give us a little more warning. She was able to safely sit / lay down to prevent the fainting part. We had her start eating a tablespoon of peanut butter every day and taking a multi-vitamin. Her iron wasn't low, but the episodes seemed to happen more frequently during her cycle. As she became more "regular", the episodes eventually stopped.