“Carbon dioxide narcosis?”
I recently was caring for a patient in the emergency room, I am a registered nurse with many years of experience. The patient was being admitted to a floor bed for exacerbation of COPD. The patient appeared to be sleeping comfortably with no signs of distress with oxygen on at 2l by nasal cannula. When I went to arouse the patient to bring to her room I noted she was unconscious. She was intubated and admitted to ICU. Does or can hypercapnia develop without obvious symptoms?
1 Answer
Every day we see tons of horses come through the ER. Zebras come so randomly that we can sometimes overlook certain things unknowingly. The fact that you caught it in time to get her to the ICU means you were paying attention. That in my book makes you a great attentive nurse. Learn from this but don't assume everyone is a zebra because of this.
Keep up the good work.
Keep up the good work.
