Other than the vitals given, it is essential to receive Mr. T’s peripheral capillary oxygen saturation to ascertain the amount of oxygen in his blood as well as the consciousness level of the victim, that is the Glasgow Coma Scale.
In light of the accident, Mr. T’s car collided head-on with a pickup truck, and there are various scenarios in that instance. The ribcage is meant to protect the lungs, however, with a predisposition to lung failure due to unrelated conditions, Mr. T’s suffered trauma may cause fluid or air into the lungs thereby making breathing difficult or the collapse of a lung. The direct impact of a car accident, even with the seat belt safely on, might cause a direct impact on the lungs. The receiving physician needs to enquire about the lung problem to understand the right treatment to give the patient (DiBardino, Bramley & Haas, 2018). The slight chest movements and the absence of breath sounds on the right may indicate the possibility of a collapsed lung due to trauma.
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After the patient regains consciousness after some time, the blood-tinged sputum, low-grade fever, and the abnormal heart rate is a sign of infection of the respiratory tract or blockage of the respiratory system by blood clots from the injuries from the accident. Pulmonary embolism is blocking of the pulmonary artery in the lungs by either blood clots or other foreign bodies in the blood. A patient with a case of suspected pulmonary embolism presents with uncontrolled high heart rate, high fever, and excessive sweating (Di Nisio, Van & Büller, 2016). The symptoms are one way to confirm embolus.
After the confirmation of an embolus, the patient was put on streptokinase and Heparin to manage the condition. The nurse would be mindful of this therapy because Mr. T was involved in an accident and healing of the wounds require ample blood clotting. Conversely, Heparin slows down the formation of blood clots and dissolves blood clots, thus creating a contradictory effect.
References
Di Nisio, M., van Es, N., & Büller, H. R. (2016). Deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism. The Lancet , 388 (10063), 3060-3073.
DiBardino, D. M., Bramley, K., & Haas, A. (2018). A 67-Year-Old Woman With a “Shrunken” Left Lung and Recurrent Pneumonia. Chest , 154 (2), e49-e53.
