Telemetry saved my patient

[Beth14]

Hi everyone, I don't think I've ever posted on AN, but now is a great time to start! This week, telemetry saved the life of one of my patients. This was a little old lady who developed dyspnea right after I had come on for the shift. She had crackles bilaterally that were new, and RR were at 36. Vitals stable, patient alert, no fluids going to precipitate overload. I leave room to call emergency nurse so she can evaluate patient. As I'm on the phone explaining the situation, the tele tech calls our emergency phone, I see my pt's tele bradying down, and a code blue was called over the intercom. By the time I get to the room, several nurses were already there bagging the patient, setting up zoll, then starting CPR when patient became pulseless. The patient was intubated and sent to ICU within a few minutes. The patient had had an MI on this admission, and had no hx of CHF, so my thought is she may have had another acute MI causing flash pulmonary edema. The effort to save this patient was amazing, and it was very sobering to realize that without her telemetry, it would have been several minutes before we would have found her. And the kicker is that we almost took her off of tele the day before, but forgot to ask the rounding MD. I don't think that's a coincidence!

My respect for the PCU techs has increased ten-fold, and I will never again roll my eyes when they call about someone's leads that are off!

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[ICURN3020]

Error...

[firstinfamily, RN]

Telemetry is a wonderful tool, it still requires rounding on the units to observe patients. Physical symptoms will appear before they show up on a telemetry monitor. Please encourage nurses to make routine rounds on their units. Having alert CNAs can certainly prevent complications from becoming events. Let them know that you appreciate them!!

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Has anyone had a similar experience?

I have not had a similar experience since I work in a post-acute hospital setting with no telemetry monitoring available, but I'm glad your patient was able to be rescued in a timely manner!