"The Young Amputee" The time is 9:32 p.m. here at St. Joe Medical Center where I am a nurse assistant on the orthopedic floor. I have just been asked to assist a nurse with a dressing change. This isn’t just changing a band-aid to a scratch on a knee type of dressing change. I am assisting in a dressing change to a thirty-year old female named Kathy that was hit by a car as a pedestrian. Kathy was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident and later revived in the emergency room. Doctors were able to save Kathy, but not her left leg. She is now a below the knee amputee. To prepare my self for this task, I have to wear protective clothes which consists of: a white hair net, an airtight orange facial mask that looks like a duck bill, a long sleeve bright yellow lab coat, rubber gloves and blue foot protectors. This gorgeous ensemble will protect Kathy and myself from infection. Did I mention that I look like an over-grown duck? As I open the door and enter Kathy’s room, what smells to be the odor of a dead and rotting animal carcass consumes my lungs. Tears are beginning to well up in my eyes and my stomach is feeling like it is going to erupt. Kathy has a severe infection in the remainder of her leg. What I see before me is a beautiful young girl laying flat on her back, fast asleep in her bed. I pull the sheet back from across her body and to my surprise what is left of Kathy’s leg has no bandages covering it. Broken bones, red muscles, blue veins, white tendons and yellowish fat cells are visible. Her leg is left open because there isn’t enough skin to close wound. There is also a gaping hole the width of a soda can and about eight inches deep running down next to the tibia and fibia bones in the middle of her leg. It looks as if someone slapped a few pounds of raw ground beef in the middle of her bed where the rest of her leg should be. The nurse tells me that my only job is to hold up in the air what is left of Kathy’s leg so she can debreed the inside of her leg. This isn’t going to be easy because Kathy’s leg weighs at least seventy-five pounds.
On December 1, 2012, a patient by the name of John Dough walks into the medical assistant’s office. The patient is five foot 11 inches tall, currently he is 70 years old and weighs approximately 211 pounds. The patient has no known allergies does not smoke and has a relatively clean health record. After filling out the patient medical history forms, the patient is seen by the doctor. The patient explains to the doctor that lately he has had trouble lifting object he would not normally have trouble with, as well as walking short distances, and being very fatigued. After further examination the patient explains how he recently found a tick on his back and removed it, but now there is a red bullseye on his back. The physician suggests a blood sample be taken and sent to the laboratory. To help with weakness and fatigue he recommends the patient to get a good nights sleep and drink plenty of fluids to avoid dehydration. He also wants the patient to limit medication intake that could contribute to fatigue such as cold and allergy medicines and make sure to finish all daily exercising three to four hours before bed. The patient schedules a check up two weeks later.
Nurses had also suggested debridement, specifically mechanical debridement whenever necessary. Based on some of the responses from nurses, this is not performed by debridement of the afflicted area by the nurse. However, this task is shared with the team of dressings from the
Traveling from Cow Head, a patient with an infected finger and swollen lymph glands visited Myra for treatment. Myra contacted a nearby doctor as she was not able to provide optimal care. The patient was unable to afford the 80 dollar surgery fee, so Myra paid for it. (Green, 1973/2012, pp.
Facts of the victim’s case are laid out one by one, as if clues to a whodunit game where the culprit is ubiquitous MRSA. Descriptions are lengthy and vivid, describing everything from the patient’s painful symptoms to gruesome surgical procedures that will upset even the toughest of stomachs. This is definitely not the book to read before a large meal. The book reads like an episode of Frontline, keeping the reader on the edge of their seat until the end.
The missing woman hung from the ceiling, skinned open like an animal. The head had been cut off, and much of the body presented severe cuts that resembled a cow in a butchery (Fox & Levin 2011, pp. 3-4). Sadly, this extremely macabre event was just the first discovery in a series of terrible findings. After scrutinizin...
Dax Cowart was the victim of an unfortunate event that took his father’s life away and nearly his own. More specifically, a propane explosion caused the accident, burning more than two-thirds of Cowart’s body. He suffered from so much pain that his request to stop receiving treatment so he could die from infection was denied. There were other factors involved for his decision to die too, one was that he felt his quality of life was going to be horrible since he was disfigured with amputated fingers, and he could not w...
The pertinent facts of this case are as follows: On February 24, 1986, Sheri Rasmussen was found dead in her home, having suffered three fatal gunshots to her chest. There were signs that Rasmussen had struggled with her assailant, as she had multiple contusions and what appeared to be a bite mark on her left inner forearm. The pathologist that examined Rasmussen’s body determined that the bite mark had
The autopsy report included the following information: Office of the Medical Examiner, Urban Government of woodland: Case #77, Deceased- Anna Garcia, Age- 38, Weight- 165 lbs, Height- 5’4 (64 inches), Race- Hispanic, and Sex- Female. The autopsy took place on August 15, 2011 at 11:00 A.M. and was performed by Dr. King. The category about the toxicology report in the laboratory results stated that there was no evidence of alcohol- BAC (% by volume) 0.015. Although there were trace amounts of acetylsalicylic acid (aspirin) present, there was no evidence of an overdose of prescription or nonprescription drugs. The autopsy report continued with a external examination. The general appearance of the body was described as a well developed, healthy 38 year old Hispanic female who weighed 165 lbs and was a height of 5’6 (64 inches). In addition, there was no evidence of postmortem tampering and rigor mortis is generalized. When considering the clothing and valuables it was identified that there was a ring located on her right ring finger, clothes were not torn but were stained with blood, and there was a small portion of vomit on her right shoulder area of her blouse. Likewise, the head and neck is ordinarily shaped with medium length, black hair. Even though the neck showes no visible signs of injury, there is an injury to the right temple. Including an open wound where pre-mortem
Today I am going to talk about the article “Amputees by Choice” by Carl Elliott. This topic is not about amputees in general but by people who want to cut off a healthy part of their body. Now you may ask, who in their right mind would want to do such a thing. Believe it or not, there is a condition called Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID). This is a mental disorder in which a person wants to amputate one or more of their healthy limbs. We then should ask, what motivates a person to want to amputate a healthy limb? There are couples of reasons or explanations for this disorder. First is that they are suffering from Body Dysmorphic Disorder, a condition in which the person believes that part of their body is diseased or ugly. The second explanation is psychosexual disorder call Acrotomophilia. This is a sexual attraction to an amputee. The last explanation is a mismatch between their bodies as they experience it.
Whoosh!A bed whizzed by, surrounded by about 6 medical personnel. “What’s going on?” I thought immediately with apprehension. I knew whatever was happening it was not ideal. Ensuring I was not in the way, I stood on my toes to see what demanded so much attention. To my astonishment, I saw a coin sized hot-pink little girl. She could not have been bigger than two quarters lying side by side.She was struggling! Even with all the procedures the doctors were executing to save her life, she was performing the most work.
There are many negative misconceptions and stereotypes about others in today's society. Misconceptions and stereotypes lead to the unfair generalization of people and they are develop for many different reasons. In reality, most individuals in certain groups are not what society portrays, instead these people are the exact opposite than the generalized group. The generalizations of a specific group are not only degrading and ignorant, but it can cause a-lot of tension within the group and outside the group for many reasons. People’s judgment of others has led to many problems when in reality most of what people believe is not true. One specific group that is often ridiculed by people’s misunderstandings is amputees.
Therefore, she may find it harder than most of the population to transition into the role of the patient and rely on others to make clinical judgements to promote and protect her recovery. Moreover, she was in a lot of physical pain, with her right leg in a full cast, causing her to be at bed rest. This I believe, as well as the patient being more aware of the inner workings of the hospital compared to other patients without a medical background, may of contributed to her ill ease and need to feel in control of her nursing care, over that of her care plan set by the
On 11/17/2015, I wore an arm brace to replicate an amputee that had lost his/her right arm at the shoulder joint. This was to replicate a loss of a dominant arm – the right side. I spent 6 hours with this condition and will report my findings in this report. I lost my arm in a car crash after it was severed and crushed my right arm. Most of my arm was beyond repair and had to be amputated, and I had to learn how to live without 2 hands. There are many reasons why amputations are required.
After the handover, I was asked by my mentor to attend to a patient who is bed ridden to have her personal care done with the assistance of one of the health care assistant staff. The patient was recently admitted to the ward and she looks sc...
OUCH! My leg crippled with pain. I tried to shuffle my way to the window, but it was excruciating. As my senses kicked back in, I felt pains shooting up and down my body. Peering down at my hands I screamed. My hands were covered in cold, congealed blood.