Acute kidney failure due to a decision many people made.
A 76-year-old woman, who stopped taking her medication on her own due to fatigue, was rushed to the hospital in a coma, with dangerously high blood sugar levels and acute kidney failure.
According to Associate Professor, Doctor Phan Huong Duong, Deputy Director of the Central Endocrine Hospital, diabetes is currently one of the most common non-communicable diseases in Vietnam, with an alarming rate of increase.
Currently, approximately 8 million people nationwide are living with this disease. It is also the third leading cause of death among non-communicable diseases in our country.
Every day, the National Endocrine Hospital receives nearly 2,000 patients, the majority of whom have diabetes. More worryingly, many cases transferred from lower-level hospitals have developed severe complications such as kidney damage, cardiovascular problems, hypertension, eye damage, or foot complications.
Regarding this issue, Dr. Ta Quang Thanh, Deputy Director of Hanoi Geriatric Hospital, emphasized that diabetes is a chronic disease that requires patients to be able to self-manage and closely monitor their condition every day.
"According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), the majority of glycemic control failures do not stem from a lack of medication but from mistakes in self-care and a lack of understanding on the part of the patient," said Dr. Thanh.
In clinical practice, he has witnessed numerous cases where patients fell into critical condition due to unfortunate mistakes.
A typical case involves a 76-year-old woman with a complex medical history including hypertension, lipid metabolism disorder, diabetes, and ischemic heart disease. The patient was prescribed outpatient medication, to be taken regularly every day.
However, about a week before being admitted to the hospital, noticing signs of fatigue, the elderly woman assumed it was due to taking too much medication and arbitrarily stopped taking all of her prescribed treatment.
“After stopping the medication, the patient's fatigue symptoms not only did not improve but worsened progressively. The elderly woman was urgently admitted to the hospital with dry skin, severe dehydration, dangerously high blood sugar levels (28 mmol/l), and acute kidney failure,” Dr. Thanh said.
The patient was immediately given large-volume fluid replacement, correction of sodium and potassium electrolyte imbalances, and close monitoring of blood glucose. The patient is out of critical condition, but to date, kidney function has not improved or returned to normal levels.
Based on the above case, Dr. Thanh noted that diabetic patients still have many gaps in their medical knowledge regarding self-care. They only focus on the blood glucose readings displayed on the meter, ignoring or downplaying accompanying risk factors such as being overweight, having high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease, or atherosclerosis.
Meanwhile, many patients arbitrarily stop taking medication when their blood sugar returns to normal. They believe the disease is cured, fearing prolonged side effects and drug dependence...
"This complacency causes patients to lose vigilance and fail to recognize the dangerous complications that are silently ravaging their bodies day by day," Dr. Thanh warned.
