Cirrhosis Case Study Essay

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JR is a 47-year-old Native American male that came into the emergency medical system via helicopter in critical condition. The situation arose after he was found in the bathtub unresponsive. He was intubated on scene and taken to the local hospital but due to the severity of his condition; he was then flown to a larger and more prepared hospital for the type of care that would be needed to save his life. He was placed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and remained under sedation until he was extubated and transferred to the post-critical floor. It is postulated that JR’s history of alcoholic hepatic failure, cirrhosis, and end-stage liver disease could have lead to high circulating ammonia levels. High ammonia levels then could have lead to JR to become unresponsive, although the actual proven cause was never noted. Another theory could have been the use of illegal substances that showed positive on his toxicology report…levels were not indicated as critical though.
Even though the cause was not proven as to why JR ended up unresponsive, his liver is severely compromised and likely plays a part of that reason. End-stage liver disease with cirrhosis ranks in the top ten in the United States as …show more content…

In this study the injury sustained by the liver was attributed to excessive alcohol consumptions. Alcoholic Liver Disease (ALD) covers a wide gamut of manifestations including hepatic inflammation, necrosis, and end-stage cirrhosis (Altamirano, & Bataller, 2011). Large amounts of alcohol consumption causes infiltration of leukocytes and hepatocellar damage occur then leading to fibrosis deposits in the liver and cirrhosis. The damage acquired during this chronic consumption of alcohol puts the body at high risk of acquiring ascites, varices, hepatic encephalopathy, infections, and renal failure (Altamirano, & Bataller,

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