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Señora Vasquez's Death: A Case Study

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1. What are the clinical causes of death in the story of Benita Vasquez?
The main contributing clinical causes of Señora Vasquez’s death was her poorly managed diabetes, which lead to poor wound healing when she obtained second and third degree burns as she was carrying hot water to the bathtub, and these burns became infected after several days without proper care. As we all know being obese or overweight increases our chances of developing diabetes, especially type 2, but obesity has also been shown to alter immune surveillance and impair host defense, leading to poor defense against infection (Genoni, Prodam, Marolda, Giglione, Demarchi, Bellone, & Bona, 2014). Therefore, being obese has also played a factor in her death as it increased Señora Vasquez’s chance of diabetes as well as her being prone to infection. In addition, poor management of diabetes can result in chronic hyperglycemia, which is associated with long-term damage of various organs …show more content…

With Señora Vasquez’s poorly managed diabetes she could have been on her way to end stage renal failure, and the administration of IV contrast material, aminoglycoside antibiotics, and hypotension resulted in poor kidney function and ultimately her kidneys shutting down.

2. What are the underlying causes of her death?
The underlying causes of Señora Vasquez’s death include medical and social factors. As mentioned earlier, medical factors that lead to her death included Senora Vasquez’s weight and poor management of her diabetes that resulted in poor wound healing and infection from her second and third degree burns. Another medical factor that lead to her death included the disease process of diabetes leading to kidney failure in combination with

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