AN ELDERLY FRAIL WOMAN WITH DEMENTIA WAS ADMITTED TO THE INTER-nal medicine service because of malfunction of her percutaneous gas-trostomy tube. The patient had a history of recurrent hospitalizations for pneumonia and urinary tract infections. She had a permanent indwelling urinary catheter because of repeated episodes of urinary retention. The gastros-tomy tube was replaced.During admission a nurse noticed that the color of the urine was purple (FIGURE 1). A urine dipstick analysis revealed +2 leukocytes, +1 red blood cells, positive nitrites, and a urinary pH of 8.2.
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