Ugh-worst thing I've ever done to a patient...

while working a case in the cath lab, my (unbelievably hairy) patient went in to VF after an RCA injection. back then we had these old school defibrillators and for some reason the hospital opted to go with these orange electroconductive pads (not defib pads) instead of the goop. these pads looked a lot like the american cheese slices, anyway, they were just as difficult to open. back to my story, guy goes into VF, i get the paddles and the pads, i try to open the pads, the package opens weird, making it nearly impossible to open while holding the paddles. so i ditch the pads and shock the patient with the paddles without the pads. good news is that the pt's in sinus, bad news is that the shock produces a puff of smoke and 1st degree burns... not to mention the smell of singed hair that lasted the whole day.

It sounds like he got an air embolism after d/c of IJ line,was he sitting up? Pt's who are sitting up,dehydrated or breathing deeply have more of a chance of getting an air embolus when a central line is D/c'd. It's best to lay someone as flat as they'll tolerate and have them hold their breath as the line is pulled.

When I first read her post, it sounded to me like he vagaled while the nurse was holding pressure on the jugular.

Whats an RCA injection?