Health and Wellbeing in Late Life by Prasun Chatterjee

Author:Prasun Chatterjee
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9789811389382
Publisher: Springer Singapore

6.2 Managing Consequences Without Knowing the Cause

“Oh! Lord Shiva, I have a hip fracture”, cried Ms. Sita Devi.

“Don’t worry, everything will be fine”, Dr. Singh replied. Without losing more time, Dr. Singh operated on her as per evidence-based guidelines. Before the operation, a preoperative check-up was performed by the internist and anaesthetist. But considering her condition, Dr. Singh decided to go for surgery without focusing on her functional reserves. The post-operative recovery is always a challenge for the elderly. On her second post-operative day, Ms. Sita Devi became delirious because of low levels of sodium. An internist was responsible for managing the hyponatraemia. Ms. Sita Devi started making irrelevant conversations and sometimes became aggressive too. In fact, the nurse had to tie both her hands and legs, and she was placed on the catheter tube, along with nasogastric, IV fluid and antibiotic. She was unable to recognize her husband, which made Mr. Sharma quite worried. He started visiting the temple frequently to pray for his wife’s quick recovery. The waxing and waning course of delirium persisted for almost 10 days, and Mr. Sharma said to one of his friends that these last 10 days had reduced “my life expectancy by 10 years”.“Doctor is saying that she would recover fully, but she still has severe weakness with on and off disorientation on the twelfth day”.

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