Advice on whether to take my mum to hospital?

[Placoderms]

My mum was out walking earlier, she suddenly lost consciousness then when she came around she was confused and didn’t immediately remember what happened just beforehand. She’s late 50’s and generally in good health, she says she now feels absolutely fine.

I checked her fit bit which measures her heart rate and it plummeted to below 50 beats per minute when she lost consciousness which presumably is relevant? She doesn’t like causing a fuss and seems absolutely fine, but I really am not sure whether she needs medical attention?

just before it happened she said her vision went a bit ‘funny’ and was zooming in and out. She has no other health concerns and this has never happened before.

what should I do?

Was it just the one dose of citalopram she missed? When I was on those years ago I would get dizzy if I missed a dose. Definitely get her checked out though.

Just FYI,111 has taken 36 hours to get back to me when I was put on their 6 hour wait time for breathing difficulties. They are swamped atm.

Though tbh it does sound like she just fainted, especially if she’d not eaten anything. Low blood sugar will do that to a person, even if it's normal for them

If she's on Citalopram and missed a dose, that could explain it, but I think she needs to be checked out anyway.

Ok thank you everyone- it does sound like TIA (just been reading about it on the NHS website. Does anyone know what tests they will conduct at the hospital and what they may (or may not) reveal? Mum has anxiety (why she takes citalapram) I’m thinking if I have more information I may be able to persuade her to go

The most common signs of a TIA are the face, arms, speech test which you have not described.

It sounds like a faint, look up the symptoms of vasovagal, the nausea, the vision disturbances.

By all means seek help if you're concerned but if she's okay right now and had none of the FAST test then I think she's better seeking ooh or GP tomorrow.

Have her checked out. This happened to my mum a couple of times and she ignored/put it down to tiredness/low blood pressure/other excuse.

The final one happened while she was on duty (nurse) so they gave her a scan. It was a brain tumour.

Sorry, I don't mean to scare the sh*t out of you on Boxing Day as it's highly unlikely as an outcome esp if she's already on blood pressure meds.

I'm on 20mg of citalopram and I can miss a couple of days before feeling sick. I also fainted once for about 5 minutes (luckily I was having a blood test). I felt very sick and vomited afterwards but my memory was fine. So just based on my experiences I don't think it's the meds or fainting.

Do you know what her normal resting heart rate is? I am late 50's and recently HR has been dropping and it has made me feel light headed. I had ecg, holter monitor.
She really needs to be checked.

TIAs are warnings that if something doesn't change, a bigger stroke may be on the horizon so they'll be looking into heart rhythms and whether anticoagulation is needed also things like carotid stenosis etc.

Strokes can also be haemorrhagic
Telling someone to take aspirin without knowing their medical history is just fuckin stupid!

Your medical qualifications are?

Needs hospital, needs ECG as this sounds concerning for cardiac arrhythmia. Doesn’t sound like a TIA and not likely to be a simple faint if she was walking at the time.

Call 111. It could have been anything (cue armchair medics on MN, and yes I have expertise here). It may be any number of things, syncope, TIA, blood glucose issues, CVA etc. They will (undoubtedly) tell you to go to A&E (they always do with stuff like this) but at least you can then justify going to A&E.

I always err on the side of watchful waiting, especially if she seems okay now. The confusion is the only thing that raises my concern. My mother had a turn and she had a TIA with confusion etc. Of course you know her better than someone random online, so go with your gut instinct. Unfortunately for every legitimate serious condition there are 50 or 100 that are time-wasters so it is always hard to tell.

Anything cardiac/respiratory/neuro systems related tends to make my ears prick up.

Hope she is ok.

Thing is how long might she wait in a/e.

TIAs can be a warning for a much bigger stroke. It can't hurt for her to get checked out. Obviously she may be waiting a while given how stretched the NHS is at the minute coupled with the time of year.

It is possible that she could see a GP quicker if they're open tomorrow.

I agree with @FixTheBone and @Juke1 . My father has this exact same thing a couple of months ago. Suddenly unconscious, then no memory of the event when he came round.

Turned out it was a cardiac event - he had it again a few weeks later, and passed away. So I don’t want to frighten you but please don’t take mumsnet posters word for it being nothing to worry about - get it checked at the out of hours gp now.

My sister had this in her fifties. It was a TIA confirmed by a MRI

Please take your DM to hospital. Your DM heart rate has gone below what is considered normal. If it went below 50bpm that is to low. Maybe the lack of oxygen because her heart wasent beating at the normal rate caused her to black out and make her feel nausea etc...

Early this year I had a health scare, I am much younger than your DM. I had a heart arrythmia, my heart rate went up very high and i black out and felt the same as your DM. I felt ok straght after but It frightened me enough to go to A&E. I was seen to straight away and they give me a cardioversion (stopped my heart to restart it) because even though i felt ok i was not. My hertrate was still beating 140 oddbpm.

Even if your DM feels ok now, she may not be, her heart rate could still be very low and she could be at risk of stroke. I'm sure she will be okay, but its better to be safe than sorry.

Sounds like a simple faint to me - the nausea before and after are classic as is your vision going funny just before you pass out. Loss of consciousness is not a feature of TIA. It's also normal for heart rate and blood pressure to be low at the point of collapse so as long as it's recovered to normal now. I wouldn't worry too much about that. Cardiac syncope (caused by either a too fast or too slow heart rate) is sudden and doesn't cause the prodromal symptoms (nausea, altered vision) and the person is quickly back to normal afterwards with no confusion/nausea etc.

I would just get her checked over by a GP when they are open again.

Your mum cannot be diagnosed here.

It could be lots of things, some potentially harmful, some not.

TIA (which is trans ischaemic attack).
Cardiac rhythm issues
Migraine
Etc. Etc.

A heart rate of 50 ish is not dangerous. For information my HR hovers between 45 -50 and goes as low as 37 when asleep. I am taking Beta Blockers for Atrial Fibrillation. One of the symptoms of Afib is dizzyness and also shortness of breath. Could be that? A 24 hour heart monitor will tell if an afib attack happens - if captured by the monitor that is!

I'm leaning towards a middle ear, vertigo type of thing.

Anyway, get thee and mum to a doctor as soon as you can to get checked out. That won't happen here!

you don’t necessarily get these symptoms with a tia, and they are sometimes hard to detect on a scan after they have passed.
I work in the community and loads of my patients have had TIA and none of them have had the classic FAST symptoms. I’ve only ever seen that in a full on stroke in my 10 years.

Hi everyone, thank you all for taking the time to comment. I took my mum to A & E and she lost consciousness again on arrival! She went straight in and was taken care of. She has so far had bloods taken, a blood sugar test, an ECG and one of those scans like a donut (is that MRI)?
Everything so far has come back normal so I guess that’s good. They have mentioned something about low phosphate levels and have given her special drinks and some of the nurses mentioned something about electrolytes being out of sync.
we are waiting to see Cardiology consultant and he will do a heart ultrasound- although I’m not sure what that checks - I guess that each of the chambers of the heart are working effectively? Also it was mentioned that she would see a neurologist- wish I had some medical knowledge, I might have some insight then! 😊
Have to say NHS have been brilliant- efficient doctors and lovely (and also efficient) nurses, very supportive with great sense of humour! I especially like Romeo the nurse if you’re reading 💕