I'm a surgical nurse. This is the story of the worst IV access fuckup potentially ever, in my humble opinion.
My hospital recieved a patient from a very rural clinic seeking a higher level of care. The patient already had altered mental status when they arrived and it wasn't long before they were induced into a coma as an experimental treatment for their condition.
Within the first week of this coma, the patient began showing signs of sepsis. After a skin-check, an IV was found on the top of the foot covered by a extra large bandaid. That IV was inserted by the clinic and had been in for 8-9 days. Aside from that, it was in backwards, horribly infiltrated, and horribly infected.
We had to surgically remove it, deal with the necrotic tissue, drain several pockets of infection, and repair the area as best as possible.
If you make mistakes, recognize them, and correct them – your normal. If you have questions about something you done, how to correct it, if it's best practice, your normal. If you do what happened here, your incompetent and need a psych eval.
Source: Original link
