Hospital-acquired pneumonia

Chronic Bronchitis Have you ever tried to breathe through a straw? Imagine living your entire life breathing through a straw. Individuals with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, or COPD live that on a daily basis. COPD is a progressive disease that gets worse over time, effecting the lungs of the patients suffering from it making very difficult to breathe. Smoking is the leading cause in patients who have COPD however, an exposure over a long period of time to lung irritants has been known…

The patient is a 83-year-old female who presents from home where she had fallen 3 times in the past 2 days. She said she fell back and hit her head with no loss of consciousness. Her medical history is significant for anxiety, hypertension, coronary disease and seizures. On presentation her BP is 160/70, pulse of 78, respirations of 15, and she is afebrile. The patient was evidently taken to CAT scan and although there is no clear reason for it she was alleged to fallen off the CAT scan…

D.J. is a 77 year-old African-American male patient who was transferred from the MICU to the CCU unit after experiencing respiratory distress. He had been admitted for moderate dehydration. The previous nurse reported that the patient’s breathing had become rapid and labored with the usage of accessory muscles. Also, reporting that his body temperature was extremely low and that his heart rate would not decrease below 200. My preceptor and I performed a head-to-toe assessment and noticed that…

Bordetella pertussis is a bacterium that causes disease of the respiratory tract in humans, commonly known as whooping cough. Usually catarrhal symptoms occur within 7-20 days of contact with the pertussis bacterium. The disease typically develops in three stages:
 Catarrhal - Non specific symptoms similar to that of a common cold. Includes a sore throat, rhinorrhea and cough. this usually lasts for two weeks. 
 Spasmodic - Recurring coughing episodes that may result in facial discolouration…

A pneumothorax is when air is present in the pleural space which results in a partial or complete collapse of a lung (Crimlisk, 2010). There are three classifications of a pneumothorax which include open, closed, and tension. An open pneumothorax occurs when an opening in the chest wall allows air to enter into the pleural space which occurs from chest traumas like stabbings and gun shots, or surgical thoracotomies (Crimlisk, 2010). A closed pneumothorax is when air accumulates in the pleural…

Pediatric Asthma Asthma is a common lung disease that cause the airways to narrow during symptoms. The muscles tighten and mucus builds up constricting the airway and making it difficult to breathe. Some symptoms of asthma are trouble breathing, coughing, wheezing, and chest tightness. Allergies, irritants, smoke, air pollution, dust and physical activities are all triggers for asthma.1 Childhood asthma is the most serious chronic disease in children and infants.2 I think childhood asthma is…

“COPD kills 2.5 million people a year, according to World Health Organization estimates. It is currently the fifth leading cause of death in high-income countries like the U.S”(L. Chang,MD) COPD is a lung diseases that is causes by an obstruction in the lung that make it difficult to breathe. COPD is weakens the airways and causes breathing problems this work as the air that is breathe goes down the windpipe into tubes in the lungs the bronchial tubes. The bronchial tubes branch into thousands…

There is a significant connection between anxiety, dyspnoea, and patients with COPD. The subjects were ten patients with stable COPD who underwent cognitive and behavioral therapy weekly and afterward filled out questionnaires and completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). The study’s results concluded that although there was an overall improvement in the patients that received group psychotherapy the only significant change was an increase in exercise tolerance. Psychological…

Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death in children worldwide, accounting for fifteen percent of all deaths of children under 5 years old. It is also the a diseases that is a bacteria, a virus, and a mycoplasma. The disease cases and number of deaths caused by pneumonia increases every year. Many factors affect how serious pneumonia is, such as the type of germ causing the infection , the age, and overall health. It is another type of bacteria/virus disease that could harm the immune…

cause serious health related risk and spread of diseases by applying basic principles in order to stop the chain of infection and maintain an infectious free work environment (NHMRC 2010). This report will explore an example of a situation in a hospital setting with an infectious patient and how radiographers go about taking measures to implement infection control procedures for the safety of themselves and other involved. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) describes a number…