did the nurse retake that BP? any really not normal(REALLY not normal) BP needs repeats done just to be certain that is what the real BP is.i suppose anything is indeed a possibility but i really cannot imagine her actually having the systolic as high as 118 and absolutely no diastolic?the systolic is the heart in contraction and the diastolic is at rest,when the contraction actually stops?if her heart actually stayed in contraction,believe me, you WOULD most certainly notice,it wouldn't actually be beating anymore,you know what i mean?this just doesn't really sound plausable unless she went into a full arrest at the time the BP was taken.

i am, just wondering if the heartbeat was so strong that it never actually went away when that nurse was actually taking it?when taking a BP,you wait til you hear the first heart beat with the scope,that is your systolic number,when you no longer hear the heartbeats anymore,that is your diastolic number.i know over the years working EMS and taking many many BPs over that time,i have heard some really freaky things thru that scope.one of which is what i just mentioned here.when a heartrate is very strong and audible,it can make it almost impossible to even get that diastolic number becasue you still are hearing beats as that needle just goes down and down til you run out of numbers.this would be my best guess at why the nurse wrote it as 188/0.believe me,if she is still around,your mom did not have a dia of 0.did she have someone come in and actually run a strip on her heart to see what may be going on with her rhythems?any BP is only as accurate as the person actually taking it.how are her BPs right now?more normal?so sorry for where she is at right now. FB