a story someone told me about AAA

[oramar]

There is another thread by a student and it made me want to tell this story. I didn't post it on the student's thread because I did not want to hijack it. A nurse I know who has been a nurse for a long, long time told me that several years ago a man walked into her ER very sick. They quickly diagnosed him with disecting AAA. It was lucky that a surgeon was right there and he went right away to OR. While the patient was being pulled onto the table it ruptured. It was touch and go but the patient made it. She said she, ER doc and surgeon hi-fived each other because it was such a close call. The patient spent a long time in the hospital recovering and a local newspaper interviewed him about his long hospitalization. When asked what he thought of the hospital he said, "it is an awful place, you know I spent 30 minutes waiting for an xray last week and I got COLD". She said when she read that she just shook her head. She said she was very proud of her ER and thought the patient would not have made it if he had walked into another place. She said she had no hard feelings against the guy, he was so out of it the whole time it was impossible to appreciate his close call and the level of care he got.

[nurse_mo1986]

I have seen this type of senario more than once in my local hospital. I've seen pt's that had absolutely no chance in hell to make it, that have pulled thru...and then ******* about the food, the temp, ... I just shake my head, and keep on walking LOL

[leslie :-D]

and i wouldn't hesitate to give the aforementioned patients in above posts, a much needed dopeslap and kick in the pants.

leslie

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

"it is an awful place, you know I spent 30 minutes waiting for an xray last week and I got COLD". .

LOL LOL---Iam sure the staff is wishing him an eternity that will be blazing HOT....

[racing-mom4, BSN, RN]

LOL LOL---Iam sure the staff is wishing him an eternity that will be blazing HOT....

:angryfire--I fprgot to add

the blazing devils!!!

[oramar]

I got another one for you. This story is from early 80s. A patient had a surgical proceedure that was first of it's kind. He was a prince but his wife was clearly psycotic. I am not critizing, my husband and my children have never had life threating illnesses, perhaps I would lose it to if they did. Anyway, her mental illness was so out of control she was interfering with his care. The staff actually got her committed. Later on he was interviewed and gave glowing reports about his care. But in the end he said he owed his recovery to his wonderful wife.

[ktwlpn, LPN]

. Later on he was interviewed and gave glowing reports about his care. But in the end he said he owed his recovery to his wonderful wife.

That was to insure he didn't wake up dead by her hand some morning....Imagine living with the nutcase...ewww

[frez]

Ill add a story of my own to this.

Two years ago my FIL went to an urgent care with incrreasing back pain thinking maybe kidney stone. They did a CT scan it showed small kidney stones and a large anuerysm. They sent him home with pain meds and told him to see his doctor within a week. Well come four am he was having increased pain in his back so he called the urgent care or er (not sure which one) and they told him to double his pain meds.

In the morning my SIL decided to check on him around ten am and within twenty minutes he collapsed and SIL starts CPR and has his sons call 911. He makes to the ER stable but serious condition they operate right away. It turns out the Aneurysm is 6cms. What saved him was it burst posteriorly into the muscle and SIL doing CPR and quick actions of the ER, OR and paramedics. It was a long road to recovery with pnuemonia along the way and some jaundice but he survived. He is 62 now. He was lucky.

Frez

[oramar]

Ill add a story of my own to this.

Two years ago my FIL went to an urgent care with incrreasing back pain thinking maybe kidney stone. They did a CT scan it showed small kidney stones and a large anuerysm. They sent him home with pain meds and told him to see his doctor within a week. Well come four am he was having increased pain in his back so he called the urgent care or er (not sure which one) and they told him to double his pain meds.

In the morning my SIL decided to check on him around ten am and within twenty minutes he collapsed and SIL starts CPR and has his sons call 911. He makes to the ER stable but serious condition they operate right away. It turns out the Aneurysm is 6cms. What saved him was it burst posteriorly into the muscle and SIL doing CPR and quick actions of the ER, OR and paramedics. It was a long road to recovery with pnuemonia along the way and some jaundice but he survived. He is 62 now. He was lucky.

Frez

I am not sure what % of people actually survive triple A but I am glad to hear this story.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

A relative of mine (several states away, don't really know him but my dad does) had a ruptured AAA that he barely survived as well. He happened to already be in the hospital getting some radiological study done when it dissected. Docs told him that was about the only reason he made it.

[momdebo, BSN, RN]

In regard to the first story, I know working ICU, our patients were at death's door many times and never would have made it without the care from doctors/nurses given from ER all the way to the unit and then who do you suppose gets the Fannie May and fruit baskets? The step down units. I know this is because that is usually the only part of thier stay they remember, usually to gorked to know what going on initially. But still, how about some munchies for the folks who made sure you made it to the step down?!

[GilaRRT]

Had a patient present to the EE where I worked about 5 years ago. I was off shift and not involved with his care. The patient was initially worked up for renal colic. His AAA decided to blow in CT scan. Quick thinking by the ER nurse ensured aggressive measures were taken to rapidly treat his deteriorating condition.

In addition, this small 50 bed hospital just happened to have a thoracic surgeon on staff. He actually worked with the ER doc who happened to be a general/vascular surgeon. The patient was taken to OR and his AAA repaired. He spent a few weeks in the ICU and walked out of the hospital neurologically intact.

He ended up writing a letter to the paper thanking the hospital. The interesting part was, he managed to think multiple people. He mentioned the ER nurse, several ICU nurses, and techs by name, in addition to the physicians and OR staff. Really neat situation. My wife was one of the ICU RN's mentioned, so she always remembers this as a high point in her career.

Pet Peeve Alert: Aneurysms and dissections are somewhat similar but have different pathological characteristics. In fact, De Bakey left us a really neat system used to classify aortic dissections.