Archive for April 30th, 2005

Day 4 – Saturday 30th April 2006

Karen and I had been due to go down to Devon for the weekend with Mum, Dad, Jane and family, so given the events, they changed the location to Sunderland so they could come and visit Karen.

Jane and I had spent the night at the hospital. Still no improvement.

“5am – Had been doing well respiratory-wise (relatively). However after 4 hours of above Sats dropped (over minutes) from 97% to 87%”

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Not too clever……….then her blood pressure started to get lower……………

“bp currently dropped to 100/55 (varying with bed position)”

Heart rate dropped to 52

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An orthopedic surgeon (orthopod) came to see her at 9am….Things were getting worse…….He recorded……………

“General condition remains rather critical. Still on ventilator and sats 81% – need x-ray before I can do anything – x-ray was tried this morning without success”

They couldn’t x-ray Karen, because of this rotational bed she was in. It was all metal with some trap doors that could be removed to allow for x-rays, but the positioning of the trap doors was bad for the x-ray they wanted to achieve.

The downward decline continued……..

“Harsh Upper Airway Sounds, Respiratory Failure, Continued Kidney Dialysis, Fat Embolus Syndrome, Traumatic SIRS, Unstable Right Hip, Right Upper lung collapse”

About 8pm at night, her sats picked up a little…..

“Sats to 83% despite 100% O2, Few Harsh Sounds bronchial breathing right upper lung, suggested bronchoscopy for right upper lung collapse, felt should repeat central x-ray and discuss if worsening”

“9.05pm – Remains on pressure bed. Right hips black and blue bruises, blister on right flank”

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The night saw no deterioration and if anything a little improvement. We were very grateful for that.

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