Administration of oxygen used to be with a rubber catheter in past. A thin India rubber catheter would be attached to the oxygen tube, and the other end of the catheter would be passed into the patient's nose. It would pass into only one nostril, but the oxygen would reach the nasopharynx and then go down the trachea into the lungs when the patient breathed. The administration system evolved. Now oxygen is administered with a face mask or nasal prongs when the patient is breathing on her own.
We saw a patient in the waiting ward during our ward round. She was lying comfortably in bed, and was conscious and doing things on her own, including breathing. She was receiving oxygen through nasal prongs.
The curious thing about her oxygen administration was that only one of her nasal prongs was in a nostril, while the other one was outside the other nostril.
"This woman is receiving 50% oxygen" I said. "That coming out of the other prong is creating an oxygen-rich environment near her face."
One of the residents moved forward and corrected it. Nothing was said to the patient. I could have done it myself, but then the residents might not have noticed that something was amiss.
That tube has to be in both the nostrils for you to receive adequate oxygen" I told the patient before moving on.
The following are possible reasons for this curious phenomenon.
I did not try to find out, because I have found out that neither the patients nor the doctors give the right explanation. It does not matter that I did not find out, because I had seen it for the first time in so many years and statistically it is extremely unlikely that I will see it again. This post is just to make readers aware that they should be aware of things that can go wrong in patient management and they should be on the lookout for the unthinkable too.
We saw a patient in the waiting ward during our ward round. She was lying comfortably in bed, and was conscious and doing things on her own, including breathing. She was receiving oxygen through nasal prongs.
The curious thing about her oxygen administration was that only one of her nasal prongs was in a nostril, while the other one was outside the other nostril.
"This woman is receiving 50% oxygen" I said. "That coming out of the other prong is creating an oxygen-rich environment near her face."
One of the residents moved forward and corrected it. Nothing was said to the patient. I could have done it myself, but then the residents might not have noticed that something was amiss.
That tube has to be in both the nostrils for you to receive adequate oxygen" I told the patient before moving on.
The following are possible reasons for this curious phenomenon.
- One prong accidentally came out.
- The prongs were irritating the patient's nose, and she removed one to improve her personal comfort and kept the other one to honor the doctor's effort at treating her.
- The patient believed it was just another gadget they used in the hospital, and had to be worn around the head, like a necklace is worn around the neck.
- The patient might have seen or heard of oxygen-rich environment being used in some beauty parlor or something, to rejuvenate the skin. (I made this one up. There might not be anything like this. But it might happen, once someone reads this post and thinks it is a good gimmick.)
I did not try to find out, because I have found out that neither the patients nor the doctors give the right explanation. It does not matter that I did not find out, because I had seen it for the first time in so many years and statistically it is extremely unlikely that I will see it again. This post is just to make readers aware that they should be aware of things that can go wrong in patient management and they should be on the lookout for the unthinkable too.
