Appendices: Case Study for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and Pneumonia

This case study is from another Open Education Resource “Health Case Studies” by Glynda Rees, Rob Kruger, and Janet Morrison.  The following chapters follow the health journey fictional character Erin Johns takes from her exacerbation of COPD (asthma in this case) followed by her hospital admission for pneumonia.

Although Erin John’s pathology is asthma (rather than our chapter on emphysema) and pneumonia, there are many similarities in the diagnosis and treatment and interactions with health care team.

In this case study, you will notice that Erin John’s is an english-speaker who has no issues with being her own patient advocate.  For a contrast, please view the subsequent case study of Miki Huang who is a non English-speaker and relies heavily on a patient advocate Appendices: Case study for Pneumonia (Miki Huang).   Although the underlying pathology is the same (ie pneumonia causing an exacerbation of COPD),  Miki and Erin’s perspectives are quite different.