Yesterday we went to a clinic in Chatellerault for Simon to have an angiogram and he passed out in front of the machine!
The nurse was just explaining about injecting the dye and he
started to sweat excessively and not respond to questions. He sort of
glazed over, then started sliding forward and sideways off the stool he
was sitting on. What's odd is that he isn't afraid of needles, and has had a number of injections lately. It's not a process he was looking forward to, and was stressed even before we left home. (I blame the literature that was given to us about the dye - Simon.)
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| The paramedics. |
So we got to sit round for ages in the nurses room while he recovered. The doctor called an ambulance. The nurse and a final year student doctor monitored and assessed him until the paramedics came then they took over. By the time they arrived, about an hour after he fainted, he'd fully recovered except for feeling very tired. The paramedics arrived complete with stretcher that they wheeled in, and which unfortunately I didn't get a photo of. They did their thing, then rang the specialist emergency doctor from the SAMU to see if they thought it was worth bringing Simon to hospital for further checks.
Fortunately he was deemed sufficiently recovered to go home, so long as I drove. So he didn't get his angiogram. We've got a new appointment for a consultation only on 1 March. We have strict instructions to ring 15, the French medical emergency number, day or night, if we have any concerns at all or if anything out of the ordinary happens.
By the way, 'to faint' in French is 'tomber dans les pommes' (literally, 'to fall in the apples'). I have no idea why.
5 comments:
I'm glad Simon's okay. I have fainted/passed out when giving blood, even for a routine blood test. It hasn't happened in decades though.
Wow! Sorry that happened to you, Simon. Fingers crossed that you stay healthy between now and your angiogram (and of course afterwards as well).
Ken and Carolyn: Simon appears to be fine now. Off to the GP to tell her the story on Monday and see what she makes of it.
Good to hear that Simon appears to be OK now. Nigel is not very good at the sight of blood so I might have expected it from him!!
Wow tomber dans les pommes sounds a lot of words for a single word of faint!!! Thanks for telling me. Cheers Diane
Rhodesia: Fainting at the sight of blood is clearly very common. The first thing the paramedics asked was to check if Simon passing out was because of blood.
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