Yeah, mine went home and turned off her mobile phone, after giving me a morphine overdose. My wife was with me in the room I was returned to, recognised there was a problem, called the nurse who escalated the situation to the ward sister and a doctor. I ende up in ICU.
A morphine o/d depresses breathing and if left without treatment can result in a brain injury and/or death.
Morphine o/d is how people are euthanased in hospital. I remember my father looking very peaceful and breathing shallowly as he slowly drifted off. Movement was interpreted as pain so he was given more morphine.
At his age of 84 and considering the effect his early life in the pits had, even though he had a pacemaker his heart just couldn't pump strongly enough to maintain enough bloodflow and oxygen supply and clear the normal fluid buildup in the lungs, so he was effectively drowning.
I'm still thinking as to whether I should report my anaesthetist , but I suppose that as the patient recovered, there wouldn't be any report on the incident.
I only learned of the event some 20 hours after when at a nursing shift changeover as the afternoon shift was introduced to me the sister in charge mentioned it to the incoming staff. A short time later the anaesthetist came to see me and mumbled something about difficulty in get titrations correct.
