My husband was recently a patient in an east coast hospital and the RN was going to give him packed cells through a 22g IV. My husband's father (a CRNA) asked her to get anesthesia to insert an 18g IV - she refused, stating "they don't like to do that". She looked for another vein- w/out even applying a tourniquet- my husband ultimately refused the blood. She became very snippy & stated they gave blood via 22g IVs "all the time & never had a problem". (maybe b/c SHE wasn't the patient!) This nurse was the charge nurse & she clearly was not comfortble finding an IV on him. I live and work on the west coast & our policy at my facility is nothing smaller than a 20g IV for packed cells, but preferably an 18g. Occ. we do call anesthesia to start a large bore IV to facilitate this. I am wondering, what is the policy in other east coast hospitals? My understanding is that a small guage IV destroys cells.