Reduce Misunderstandings in Patient Care from Nurse Together

For the full article please go here.The patient, Carol, was a 36 year-old married woman with two young children. She did not see her doctor much in the last two years. She was feeling fine.

Carol was admitted to the hospital with a serious leg infection. The staff tried to save her leg but were unsuccessful. Her leg needed to be amputated below the knee.

Carol had insulin dependent diabetes for over ten years. She knew how to check her blood sugar and how to give herself insulin. She could return-demonstrate those skills quite well. But a few months before the infection started, she felt a tingling in her fingers and thought it was a side effect of the insulin; she stopped taking her daily shots.


Her husband was not aware of her finger-tingling symptoms or her decision to stop taking her insulin. He felt guilty for not having intervened. He left for work every day before she woke up. There is no record that Carol had ever been evaluated for depression.