Patient deaths occur in 3's at our unit

nosonew · Mar 03, 2005 08:03 AM

Has anyone ever noticed that? It seems as if we can go 6-9-12 months without one death, then we have one right after another! We have had 3 pass this year (#3 last night) and all but one was completely unexpected. One stroked at home, one died of unknown causes last night in a hospital, and the first, she had major cardiac issues and everyone expected it, including the patient.

Anyone else see this? Does it just happen in dialysis or everywhere?

Just a thought...

mcmike55 · Mar 03, 2005, 08:54 AM

Things happening in 3's happen all the time I think.
I've been in nursing since "77 (1977, not 1877)

working, medical, med-surg, ICU, ED, extended care, and surgery, and believe me, you see things happening in 3"s all the time!!
Really dosen't matter, deaths, code blue, AAA ruptures, etc, they seem to come in 3's.
The trick is, sometimes the 3's are a bit apart, but still close enough to count as a trio, and sometimes they come soooo close together, you can't tell where one set left off, and the next set begins.

Best advice I guess, is when you have a bad thing happen, such as a death like you described, plan on a couple more....soon.

Mike

**jnette** · Mar 03, 2005, 09:11 AM

Originally Posted by nosonew

Has anyone ever noticed that? It seems as if we can go 6-9-12 months without one death, then we have one right after another! We have had 3 pass this year (#3 last night) and all but one was completely unexpected. One stroked at home, one died of unknown causes last night in a hospital, and the first, she had major cardiac issues and everyone expected it, including the patient.

Anyone else see this? Does it just happen in dialysis or everywhere?

Just a thought...

Yes, it does appear that this is the case, and have noticed it myself over the past years.