Pay No Attention To The Man Behind The Curtain

Cathy was sleeping soundly when I arrived at her room this evening. This was particularly calming for me after I learned about her day.

During the day there were some 'difficulties' with the Bi-Pap machine. Cathy started to have trouble getting flow from the machine and felt she was heading into trouble, so she pressed the 'call button'. However, since Cathy did not answer the attendant when he queried her over the intercom, no one came to Cathy's assistance. (Of course Cathy did not answer, she cannot speak. What an idiot!!!!) Cathy's blood oxygen levels dropped below the alarm limits. It was not until after the alarm was going off for several minutes that someone responded. The nurses and attendants are conditioned to ignore the blood oxygen sensor alarms because they give a lot of false alarms. Cathy attempted to inform the nurse that she felt the machine was not correct. The nurse attributed the situation (low oxygen levels) on anxieties. By the time it was determined that there were indeed issues with the machine, they were 'bagging' Cathy. [The preceding is a compilation of the story as described by Cathy and the evening nurse who was not on duty at the time].

This was the exact situation Cathy was afraid of before leaving the ICU. I have been told that there is now a notice posted at the monitoring station, stating that Cathy does not have to respond to intercom queries (I sure hope it is more than a post-it with a scribbled instruction). The attendant is to simply inform Cathy that someone is on their way. Additionally, Cathy's nurse and 'care partner' are to physically check on Cathy hourly. Therefore someone should be sticking their head into the room about every 30 minutes.

After all this excitement today, Cathy did not spend any time on the trach collar or out of bed and in the chair.