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This is for Mama Smurff
A woman who switched beds to be closer to the window died after she was given the wrong type of blood during surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital. A technician had taken a blood sample from her roommate, hospital officials confirmed this week.Hospital leaders described the transfusion death as the first at the Falls Church hospital, the only trauma center in Northern Virginia. The 753-bed facility performs about 57,000 transfusions a year, officials said.
Good thing I did not have my baby at Inova Fairfax Hopsital.
Before a blood transfusion is given in our hospital there are four separate checks involving dual checks when the blood is picked up from the blood banks and checks with two nurses before it is administered. That mistakes like this happen is always so surprising to me. Of course you have to remember hospitals are dangerous places and you need a nurse to save your life, at least most of the time.
Posted by: Pat on August 31, 2003 04:34 PMThat system still wouldn't help if the other woman switched beds just before the transfusion, if the nurses had to leave the room for some reason after doing the test but before administering the transfusion. I've heard of some seriously loony stuff done by some hospital patients, including one guy who snuck over to a roommate's morphine pump and hooked it up to his own arm before climbing back into bed. He died in his sleep from a morphine overdose, naturally.
I wonder how many of these deadly patient hijinks get blamed on the doctors and staff? The family of the morphine guy initially blamed the staff for hooking up the machine to the wrong person, but apparently they were able to prove the pump had been hooked up to the guy who needed it. It's possible a lot of other popularized instances of negligence were actually caused by the patients themselves, but there was no way to prove it.
Posted by: Tatterdemalian on August 31, 2003 08:59 PMThe protocol for administering blood transfusion is:
1. Blood is drawn for a type and crossmatch and forwarded to the blood bank after it is labeled with the patient's name, social security number. The label also includes the nurse's name, title, date and time the sample is drawn.
2. The u nit is picked up from the blood bank after verification by the lab tech and the person who picks up the unit.
3. It is then verified by the nurse who will give the blood and one other nurse at the same time. The patient wears a name band with his full name and social security number. This has to be verified by both nurses by comparing the information a form that comes with the unit of blood to the complete information on the band.
It makes no difference if a patient has changed beds or rooms if this protocol is followed there will not be a mix up. This protocol is the same in every hospital in the US as far as I know. Mix ups do occur but only if the rules are not followed.