Real Life Medical Emergencies Caught Just in Time

Everyone’s got the occasional health scare, but sometimes the case is a lot scarier: a real medical emergency. In some cases, a serious emergency can be prevented by a single watchful eye or an extra cautious neighbor.

These stories are 49 times that someone noticed a medical issue just in time before they could have ended more tragically.

Time for Change

I have worked in various fields of healthcare, from CNA to pathology. One time, I went to visit with a friend and learned her grandmother was now living with her. She had cracked her femur and was now immobile, catheterized, and on some strong substances.

I walked into her room to say hi and was hit with the unmistakable smells of severe infection. I looked at her cath line and, instead of clear yellow urine, she had milky reddish urine with chunks of sediment in it.

I asked how she was feeling and she said well enough but added that her stomach was really hurting.

I told my friend to call an ambulance, as grandma has a severe bladder infection and needs to be seen now. The doctors couldn’t believe it. She had a severe E. Coli infection in her bladder and, due to the painkillers she was on, was also very constipated.

It was amazing that she was running no temp and was lucid. Said, “This woman was brought in just in time.

If you would have waited any longer she could have gone skeptic or developed a high enough fever to end her life.”

Turns out the infection was caused by a piece of trash home healthcare agency that never changed her Foley. Catheters have to be changed and flushed to prevent infection and, in three months, they never did. She’s okay now, though. She is walking with a walker and has a great home nurse.

Whenever I go to visit my friend, she comes to say hi and calls me her “infection angel.” Story Credit: Reddit/whoatethekidsthen

Good Timing

My mother was in remission from breast cancer but was having severe headaches and other symptoms. She went to her regular oncologist’s office. They checked her out and said that her calcium levels were slightly elevated, but they also said that she should just take some painkillers and head home.

Fortunately, she had been planning to visit a friend in Rochester, Minnesota over the weekend. Given how bad she was feeling, she called her friend and said, “I can’t make it.” During this conversation, she mentioned her calcium level as being the only thing wrong with her that the doctors could find.

By pure luck, the friend she was going to see had taken a job in an oncologist’s office at the Mayo Clinic one week prior. Her boss, the oncologist, was walking through the office as she hung up the phone and He asked her what the call was about.

My mother’s friend explained that her plans had been canceled for the weekend because my mother was ill. Then, she offhandedly mentioned my mother’s calcium level. The oncologist’s face literally turned white as soon as he heard the number.

“She needs to get to an emergency room now. She is a 0.1 or 0.2 mg/dL away from falling into a coma and never waking up.” And he was right.

My mother’s hometown doctors had basically sent her home to perish because they were apparently too incompetent to recognize life-threatening hypercalcemia when they saw it.

Thanks to this improbable chain of events, I was able to rush my mother to the emergency room where she was able to get the calcium flushed out of her system. As it later turned out, the breast cancer had moved into her bones and was leaching calcium into her blood.

A bunch of other things happened next before this was fully over. The calcium was flushed from her system and she went on aromatase inhibitors that fought cancer. There was also some other medication that helped prevent the calcium from leaching.

A few years later, however, the cancer was still on the move and she developed tumors in her uterus and intestinal tract. Sadly, she passed this past February. But I cherish the extra time that my brother and I had with her.

She was able to attend both of our weddings, all thanks to the friend that told her to get to the hospital immediately. I am forever grateful for whatever made it possible for that chance occurrence to go down the way it did.

I can’t even imagine how awful it would have been otherwise. Story Credit: Reddit/hamlet9000

Back on the Road

I am a nurse practitioner. I once saved the life of a man who was having a heart attack. He had been driving the car in front of me and was maneuvering very poorly, so I passed him to give the “what the heck is your problem” face.

But as I looked into his window, I saw immediately that something was very wrong with him. About that time, his car pulled off the road and stopped. I stopped and got out to see what was going on. I immediately called an ambulance.

I helped him out of the car and got him sitting down in the grass, talking, getting information, etc. And after a few minutes, he suddenly slumped over. No pulse. I laid him down and started CPR. Thankfully, the ambulance arrived a minute or two later.

It was truly a case of incredible luck for him. He ended up living and I’m fairly close with his family now.

Story Credit: Reddit/RMEffinP

What’s that Smell?

I’m a nurse. I diagnosed somebody with internal bleeding without even laying eyes on him. The thing about an intestinal bleed is that it has a really distinctive odor. Very different from any normal bodily function.

The guy seemed a little confused when I started talking to him through the door of the bathroom stall, but he did agree to go see his doctor afterward.

Story Credit: Reddit/auraseer