Danger Signals
Aside from this, the attendant must be constantly on the lookout for danger signals of failing vitality. As such a con¬dition develops the temperature usually drops rapidly to normal or below normal without any apparent improvement in the general condition^ and the patient’s heart and respiration begin to fail. The pulse becomes rapid, barely palpable (thready), the face assumes an anxious look, the lips, nose, hands and feet become bluish (cyanotic), cold and clammy, respiration becomes labored and rapid (over 35 a minute), a rattling sound in the throat is heard with each breath, and, if able to expectorate, the patient brings up a pink or red, foamy, sticky fluid. Energetic steps must be taken if the patient in such a condition is to be saved.
First, he should be propped up in bed in a sitting or partial sitting position and hot packs applied to his extremities or to the entire body and the treatment described in this volume for heart-failure immediately instituted.
Here we wish to put stress on the statement that no person can be an efficient nurse who does not take particular care of herself. To be cheerful, to be able to do a patient full justice, she must take care of her own health first. She, therefore, must commit no dietetic errors, must have sufficient sleep and outdoor exercise, and finally, in case of a communicable disease, must avoid all unnecessary exposures to infection on the part of herself or others.