I was taking a 60-year-old patient diagnosed with pneumonia for a walk on the hallway when I noticed that she’s getting short of breath. She also told me that she needed to rest for a while so I got her to lean against the wall. It was uncharacteristic of her to be short of breath after such a short distance so I did not put the chair anywhere near the spot where I got her to rest. So then whilst she was leaning on the wall it was quite obvious that she was not short of breath anymore, but then she told me she’s getting dizzy and that she felt she was going to faint. The patient was 123kg and I was panicking inside because there was no one in the hallway at that time. She was already leaning towards one side and was quite wobbly. There was a wheelchair about 8 meters from where we were and the chair that I placed on the hallway was just right beside it. Leaving the patient and quickly grab the wheelchair or chair was definitely not an option for me so I braced myself, guarded the patient’s knees, feet and torso and yelled at a nurse from a distance. She heard me and quickly came to help me get the wheelchair. That experience taught me to be extra cautious when dealing with patients who tend to get short of breath. Even though that patient did not normally get out of breath at that distance, I still would have placed the chair closer, asked a nurse to walk with us or just bring a wheelchair along. I should also have considered the fact that the patient’s weight won’t help me should she faint or collapse.
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Sounds like you handled the situation pretty well. I think there will always be potential problems no matter how careful we are, but things that send of extra-caution bells are definitely things like obesity, height, distractability, confidence in functional ability and impulsive behaviour, along with things like physical or mental impairments. I had a patient who had GB who was very tall and even though one PT could handle him, and I believe one nurse could, the nursing staff were not willing to treat him as a one assist on the basis of if he overbalance, he was too tall for one little nurse to handle. Our experience with patients of a variety of conditions also helps us to know our limitations and what we can handle. Our experience makes us stronger!
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