Death on Operating Table procedures

anglgrl63 · Jul 31, 2001

When we have a patient die in the OR we call the medical examiner to have it declared a medical examiners case or be cleared.

If the patient is cleared we take all the IV's and drains out and bandage the wounds. We also place a clean gown on the patient, and clean up any blood or prep solution (get the patient ready for viewing by their loved ones).

If the medical examiner does not release the body we do everything else except we don't take out any of the lines.

We will then move the patient over to the carrier and place a towel around the rectum so if there is any oozing it is taken care of.

Sometimes we have to reinforce the IV sites with 4 x 4's if it was a heart patient and was heparinized there could be more than normal oozing.

We then take the patient to an isolation room for the family to view the body and be secluded from other staff and visitors.

We then take the patient to the morge when the family is finished.

Sometimes we help out and call the funeral home.

We try and call the chaplain when the patient codes so they can be with the family and a lot of times they will help a lot with communicating with the family, comforting them and helping with the funeral home.

Hope this helps.

Death in the OR probably is the most difficult part of the job.