Ng tube placement, bleeding

Specialties NICU

Published

I've never had this happen before. Anyone ever had this occur?

I placed a ng tube on a full term infant. After meeting slight resistance I gently pulled back a small amount and retried with ease. About 30 seconds later I noticed a small amount of blood (pinkish red) in the ng tube. 30 seconds after that the infant the infant spit up approximately 15-20 cc's of brownish blood. At first I was really concerned thinking somehow I caused the infant to bleed but then realized it was brownish blood that appeared old.

I'm just worrying myself as this has never happened to me.

When placing a large french, I have on occasion hit the inside of the nostrill and caused some bleeding. Those noses can get pretty smashed up during delivery and sometimes an NG is not so easy to pass.

Was this a new, newborn? I'm guessing that the baby was gagging on the NG and vomited old maternal blood it swallowed in utero. That, I see often.

2 day old. Had respiratory distress at birth, ng tube was placed. Respiratory distress ceased ng tube was removed. At 2 days different symptoms and this is when the ng tube was placed. I figured if he had an ng tube after birth he wouldn't still have old mom blood in his stomach.

Was not difficult to pass through the nostril, thinking I nicked the inside of the nose.

Then he was probably vomiting some blood from the first NG pass.

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