An unsuspecting patient

My two week placement in 2nd year was rather interesting as it was basicaly a gerontology clinic which was very similar to a rehabilitation unit. Many of the patients on the ward were fortunate enough to have many friends and family to come and visit.

On one particular visit, I was walking a patient who was 2 weeks post THR of her (L) hip and just before taking her for a walk on the wards, a close friend of patient, who she had known for over 30 years, had come and visited her. I explained to the visitor that we were going for a ten minute walk and that she could join us for a walk outside, of which she accepted.

A few minutes into the walk, the visitor had started to slow down a little bit and was falling behind us and really started to look unwell. I asked her about her condition and explained to her about having a sit down on a nearby chair, but she said she was ok. The condition had gotten worse and her face went bright red and looked very sick. Little did i know she was a diabetic and that she was low on sugar, she hadn't eaten for 5 hours since driving from the country to visit her friend.

The situation ended up ok with the help of some food and a nearby nurse. bu the thing that i couldn't believe was how quickly the situation got out of hand. If a similar situation was to happen again, as soon as the visitor started to show signs, you must immediately start to ask questions as it could be something very simple from her PMH that could causing the symptoms. Although this particular situation couldn't have been avoided, it could have been stopped in the early stages had the simple questions such as " Do you know whats going on?" or "Have you got a condition that provides these symptoms?" etc. These few simple questions could have saved me from being in a stressful situation