Recently, the Xue Peng emergency team of the Dadong Second Branch of the Shenyang Emergency Center received an order to visit the hospital, and an elderly person fainted while taking a bath in the jurisdiction and needed first aid. The emergency team rushed to the scene, and when they arrived at the scene, they saw an elderly female patient, who had woken up, and found that the patient had a 5cm long wound on his head, and was sent to the hospital for further observation and treatment after being bandaged to stop the bleeding. Here, the emergency doctor introduces some knowledge and precautions related to bathing for the elderly.
1. Causes of fainting in the elderly taking a bath
The reason why the elderly faint in the bath may be due to the dilatation of blood vessels caused by high water temperature, which may lead to a decrease in the amount of effective blood returning to the heart, or it may be caused by hypoglycemic reaction caused by excessive energy consumption during bathing, or caused by heart disease, brain disease and other diseases and hypoxia.
1. High water temperature: When the elderly are taking a bath, if the indoor temperature is high and the bath water is hot, resulting in more sweating in the body, it is easy to cause the body's blood volume to decrease, and at the same time, the peripheral blood vessels are dilated, so that the effective circulating blood volume is relatively insufficient, inducing hypotension, insufficient cerebral blood supply, etc., the phenomenon of fainting in the bath may occur;
2. Hypoglycemic reaction: especially for the elderly with severe diabetes, if the blood sugar is too low due to poor blood sugar control, it is easy to cause hypoglycemic reaction due to the body's high energy consumption during bathing, and it is easy to induce insufficient oxygen supply to the brain, which may cause fainting in the bath;
3. Heart disease: If the elderly themselves have heart disease, due to poor indoor air circulation and decreased blood volume when taking a bath, it is easy to induce a heart attack, such as arrhythmia, resulting in a decrease in the heart's ability to eject blood, and they may faint in the bath;
4. Brain diseases: For example, the elderly have cerebral atherosclerosis, transient ischemic attack induced by insufficient cerebral blood supply, etc., if the disease occurs in the bath, it may also faint in the bath, and it is easy to fall and trauma and other accidents, thereby aggravating the physical damage.
5. The air humidity in the bath is relatively high and the oxygen content is relatively low, which can easily lead to poor oxygen intake in the elderly.
2. What should the elderly do if they faint in a bath?
When the elderly faint while taking a bath, family members or on-site personnel should first keep calm, help the elderly out of the hypoxic environment in time, keep their airway unobstructed, and replenish their water in time, if the situation does not improve, call 120 for help in time.
If the situation is not serious, you should leave the bathroom immediately and go to a place with air circulation to lie down and rest, while keeping the airway open, open the window for ventilation to keep the air circulation, and you can use clothes to raise the legs of the elderly to promote blood return. If there is no obvious effect after the above treatment, or if the elderly person faints after bathing and disappears spontaneously, they should immediately dial 120 and quickly send them to the hospital for first aid.
When bathing, the elderly should ensure indoor air circulation, and the water temperature should not be too high. If you experience dizziness and other uncomfortable symptoms, you should stop bathing immediately and move slowly to a well-ventilated place to avoid falls. In addition, the elderly should also not bathe for a long time and do not bathe on an empty stomach to avoid hypoglycemia. The elderly should not go to the bath alone, and it is best to bathe with a family member.
Author: Xue Peng
Source: Shenyang Emergency Center
Editor: Sheng Wenbo
Proofreading: Sun Ping, Chen Zeming
Preliminary review: Jin Bo
Review: Xu Jiang