Question

Elderly Lady

You are called to the emergency room and told to do something with an elderly lady lying on a stretcher. She was found lying on the street along a curb. She had slurred speech and jerky, unsteady movements. Sometimes she seemed to briefly lose consciousness. The emergency room personnel are recommending that she go to a detoxification center because she is obviously intoxicated. You note the lady is well dressed and found one block from a high-rise apartment building for senior citizens. The lady tells you, in a somewhat garbled way, that she was going out to dinner at the diner across the street and he “got this feeling in his head.” After spending time with her, you are not convinced that she has been drinking.

Your case note would read:

You would recommend the following be investigated further:

Your hunch about what might be wrong here:

Answer 1

The first move would be to do a Toxicology to test, to estimate the presence if any of alcohol or any other substances that could account for her behavior. If the test was positive for alcohol, detoxification and further rehabilitation would be the ideal course of action.

If the lady's test is revealed to be negative for the presence of substances, further alternate investigations must be pursued. Experts that could be consulted could be clinical psychologists, neurologists or endocrinologists. According to the examinations, it could then be determined what is the probable cause of the behavior exhibited.