The Stat Glucose that killed!

[willbeflight]

OK guys, I want to start this out by saying that this could only happen to me! While I am in school, I left my job at the Internal Medicine office and started doing phlebotomy at the hospital on second shift. You won't believe this stuff.....

It's around four o'clock in the afternoon, (today) and I get a call in the lab to come and draw a stat glucose on a patient.
I get to the room, and this poor patient has NO veins! He has sores on his arms, and I don't wanna torture him. I decide to do a finger stick and just fill a Peds Chem tube. I tell the patient what I am about to do. He just looks at me and puts his head back down, so I get to work! I get about two or three drops in the tube....and then nothing. I look up at the patient, just to discover, that while I am busy trying to milk blood from his finger, he has expired!!! I can't make this stuff up! I will refuse a stat glucose next time! LOL :blush:

 

[WannaBeFlight]

LMAO!!! Only you dear, only you! Thats so awesome, I know dub thee: 007! I always knew you had the special touch!
Well at least you said a prayer for him...May he rest in peace.

 

[willbeflight]

LMAO!!! Only you dear, only you! Thats so awesome, I know dub thee: 007! I always knew you had the special touch!
Well at least you said a prayer for him...May he rest in peace.

I know!! Bless his heart! He was a sick one. :sad: But, only me!!

 

[exodus]

Didn't they have him on a monitor or anything?

 

[Flight-LP]

***note to self, stay away from future flight medics in NC. NO BLOOD DRAWS ALLOWED***

 

[Sasha]

Didn't they have him on a monitor or anything?

Not all patients are put on telemetry or monitors.

 

[exodus]

Not all patients are put on telemetry or monitors.

All ER's here put every pt on a 5 lead, Auto BP, and O2sat no matter what, even the BS pt's.

 

[JPINFV]

...and go an hour north to OC and not all patients in the ER get a monitor (BP cuff and pulse ox, yes. 3-5 lead [hospital dependent], no).

 

[medicdan]

Didn't they have him on a monitor or anything?

I presume if he expired, and they pronounced, they would have taken him off the monitor, or at least turned it off...?

 

[Sasha]

All ER's here put every pt on a 5 lead, Auto BP, and O2sat no matter what, even the BS pt's.

Where did it say he was in the ER?

Sucks for you, OP, you must have the touch of death!

 

[willbeflight]

Where did it say he was in the ER?

Sucks for you, OP, you must have the touch of death!

OK, he was on the general surgery floor. No telemetery. He was there as EOL issues anyway and had a DNR. I could not believe the crappy timing of that!! I haven't killed anyone else!! :blush:

 

[willbeflight]

***note to self, stay away from future flight medics in NC. NO BLOOD DRAWS ALLOWED***

Thanks for your vote of confidence! lmao

 

[Buzz]

For some reason this story reminds me of the X-Men comics... Rogue...

Perhaps you have discovered your mutant power.

 

[Epi-do]

I haven't killed anyone else!! :blush:

Ummm.....yeah.....YET!

Sorry to hear about that, but it's not like you really killed him, you just happened to be there.

 

[Sasha]

Ummm.....yeah.....YET!

Sorry to hear about that, but it's not like you really killed him, you just happened to be there.

He just happened to die while you were stabbing him with a lancet...

Like the patient just happened to go into asystole right as you pushed a drug...

 

[mycrofft]

If a finger lancet did that...

Imagine if you'd tried a lumbar puncture?

What!?:unsure:

 

[willbeflight]

For some reason this story reminds me of the X-Men comics... Rogue...

Perhaps you have discovered your mutant power.

hmmmm, that a thought!!

 

[willbeflight]

He just happened to die while you were stabbing him with a lancet...

Like the patient just happened to go into asystole right as you pushed a drug...

I think the two are totally different.

 

[mycrofft]

We have discovered the fatal "CHI" point

of acupuncture.h34r:

 

[rescuepoppy]

If I have to go to the hospital over that way I am going to ask the lab tech if they are on EMT LIFE before they do a finger :censored::censored::censored::censored::censored: on me. But seriously sorry to hear that. Just remember the fact is in this business we are going to see people die. Always keep in mind we do not make the decision on when it is somebody's time. All we can do is keep on doing our best.