My father called me at work at around 11:40 this morning, clearly in some distress. He said he could hardly sit much less stand up. He then said that he was trying to clear things off a chair to sit in, before I heard a loud crash. That was apparently him falling down. He said he was too dizzy and too weak to move.
At first I was worried he could have broken something (with osteopoenia and avascular necrosis in his arthritic hip, that is certainly a risk), but he insisted he was not in pain. I was thinking it could have been caused by dehydration, so I cor mom to bring him a cup of water. At first dad was saying we needed to call 911 and have someone take him to the ER, but he seemed to back down from that after a while.
I finished up the task I was in the middle of and then left work early. Before starting my vehicle I left a text and voicemail message asking advice from my oldest half brother, who is a physical therapist. (We had been meaning to talk to him for advice for finding a good orthopedist to see about whether it is a good idea to get dad a hip replacement at his age and in his condition, so I mentioned that in the message too.) When I was almost back home he texted back that I should call 911 just to be on the safe side.
When I got home I found dad laying awkwardly on the floor of his office area of the living room, right next to a new large dent in the wall. It looks like it was made by his head hitting it hard, but dad insisted that his head didn't hit anything as he caught himself with his arm. About half of the skin between the elbow and shoulder of his left arm had been scraped off. I guess that it could have hit the wall, but it looked to me more like it scraped against the now somewhat blodly metal filing boxed on the floor behind him.
Dad said that by the time I got home he was feeling better, no longer dizzy anymore but still not sure he would be able to get up. I went ahead and called 911 then. The operator suggested I have his stay still and not try to move him until paramedics could get there. (When he said he thinks he had to go to the bathroom she changed to saying I could try to help him to the toilet, but then we settled for him instead peeing into a cup without moving much.)
The first think the EMTs noticed was the blood on his nose and assumed he had just hit his head, but that was actually from yesterday when he banged his nose into the door while getting out of my car on the way back from his oncologist.
Dad wanted them to help him stand up, but they insisted they needed to check his vitals first. They said he seemed to be ok, but his blood pressure was quite high (178 over something). When they helped him up dad said he could not tell yet whether he was dizzy again. They checked him blood pressure again and seeing his systolic pressure had dropped to 80 told him that he must be dizzy. They insisted that he ought to go to the hospital to see what could have caused such serious orthostatic hypotension. He was reluctant, but eventually agreed.
They said that the hospital we usually use was completely full due to covid. They just came from there and were told they had to divert all patients away, so they instead suggested the next closest hospital.
They asked if he was on any blood thinners. They said that if he was then would be required to take him to a specialized trauma ward, which would be further away. I told them that it is not a simple question as his cancer drug can act like a blood thinner in many patients, but that his oncologist told us yesterday after looking over his latest bloodwork that dad is among the small minority whose platelets are completely unaffected.
They did a EKG in the ambulance while sorting out the medical history, getting contact info, etc. One of the EMTs thought that he saw a pattern that tends indicates ischemia, but the other seemed less sure. When I heard Ischemia I assumed a minor stroke (like I suspect mom had before her major strokes), but this EMT seemed sure that that was not the case. He said it would be an issue with the heart or with his thyroid.
I got a text message from the hospital with a link to check on wait times and progress. It is showing me that Dad has passed the Initial Treatment & Triage, Move to Treatment Area, and Assessmen & Treatment phases. It estimates 1 hour 30 minutes to 2 hours o finish the Findings & Next Steps phase, before Admission, Discharge, or Transfer.
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