Oxygenation Case Study

Lucy Lu is a 77-year-old Asian patient who is admitted to the surgical unit after a colon resection this morning. She has not been in the hospital before and is accompanied by her 80-year-old husband and her two daughters. Mrs. Lu has been in the United States for 30 years and speaks fluent English. She still values her Asian heritage. Her health has been deteriorating lately because of chronic bronchitis and stable angina. She smokes 1½ packs of cigarettes per day. She is 10 lb. underweight for her height. Jim Stone is a 24-year-old senior nursing student and has been assigned to care for Mrs. Lu postoperatively. He takes her vital signs upon return from the post anesthesia unit: blood pressure is 110/58 mm Hg, temperature is 99.8° F orally, pulse is 112 beats/min, and respirations are 26 breaths/min. He asks her to rate her pain, and she states that it is a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10. She has a patient-controlled analgesia pump. Her surgical dressing is dry and intact.