Ever have the spike come out from a hanging bag of blood?

Nurses General Nursing

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Spiked my saline and blood prior to hanging. Went to connect the blood to the secondary port (we no longer have Y blood tubing) and the spike came right out of the bag. Between that and the active GI bleeder (diaper was FULL with blood and clots) the room looked like a murder scene.

Just wondering if I did something wrong. Co-workers seem to think the bag might have been faulty. Maybe I didn't have the spike in far enough?

What. A. Mess.

Specializes in Neuro ICU and Med Surg.

Do you use the Alaris pumps? I have seen this happen multiple times with these. We actually have gotten emails about proper blood spiking due to this issue.

Specializes in Pediatric Critical Care.

Us too! I don't like alaris!

Specializes in Cardiology.

I haven't had that happen, but I did have a bag start dripping all over the place when I opened the tabs to insert the spike. We have a couple different types of bags, and one type has little tabs that need to have just a little bit of the end pulled apart and then you spike it. I pulled this one apart the same as I always do, and when I spiked it, instead of the blood staying put like it normally does, it went ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was like the top part of the tab wasn't sealed properly or something. It was so gross, and it took me forever to clean it up, even though it was probably only 10mLs of blood. Luckily, only a few specks got on my scrubs and it came out fine, but it definitely looked like a bloodbath.

Wow...reading these bloody tales has been good therapy for me. As a nurse working in Psych it has not been very fun lately. Thanks for giving me another side to nursing. Wow...what a visual you all create for me. Thanks for the distraction.

I've never had the spike come out but the day I had a "blood bath" when one of my pt's IV lines snapped and he had blood return flowing EVERYWHERE! Of course, he was confused and didn't put on his call light so it wasn't until he set off his bed alarm trying to get out of the bloody bed that I noticed, blood all over the bed, the floor, the walls, the ceiling even. It looked like a bad Halloween scene.

What.A.Mess.

Specializes in Critical Care, Education.

Esme - I have witnessed the same type of events in an ICU setting -on two separate occasions. Patient bleeding out - multiple transfusions with pressure bags to replace volume ASAP.... bag bursts . . . instant reenactment of that pivotal prom scene in Carrie. It's hard to believe how far the blood from a single unit can travel when it's under that type of pressure. Literally on all four walls, ceiling, floor, dripping off all the equipment, etc. It was jaw dropping. The staff who were 'in range' were not amused. Massive incident report - including exposure report/follow up for all involved. Then, of course, I can still recall the looks on the housekeeping staff who turned up to help. . .

Thank heavens, I was only an observer both times. But I did pitch in and help clean up the carnage.

I've never had the spike come out but the day I had a "blood bath" when one of my pt's IV lines snapped and he had blood return flowing EVERYWHERE! Of course, he was confused and didn't put on his call light so it wasn't until he set off his bed alarm trying to get out of the bloody bed that I noticed, blood all over the bed, the floor, the walls, the ceiling even. It looked like a bad Halloween scene.

What.A.Mess.

I had a confused pt rip out her IJ once...she had to have pulled hard on that thing since they're stitched in! Luckily it clotted off and she didn't bleed out before we found her. I had to wash her hair 3 times before I got out all that clotty mess! Her bed also looked like a blood bath!

Specializes in Care Coordination, MDS, med-surg, Peds.

When I worked Med-surg, Twice I had patients dislodge a large bore IV while recieving heparin drips, AND not bother to tell staff that there was blood all over the place! Took forever to clean it up both times!.

THEN I had the drunk that BIT his IV tubing in half, staggered all around his room with the IV tubing spurting blood everywhere and he had head lice badly, so I had to put on isolation/PPE to even go in the room. This was not my patient, so-to-speak, but I was the one who "found" him in this mess, so I took care of it. His nurse stood outside the disaster zone, offering advice.

I have had TPN tubing/spike malfunction when hanging it. Thankfully have not had blood do this.

I have spiked all the way through a regular IV injection port and into my finger once! This was when we used real needles to access ports, and I was going to push something and went thru the port into my finger. Since I was now "connected " to the tubing, it was probably funny watching me squirming around to shut off the IV, so the contaminated(now) fluids would not run into the Pt, so I could remove the needle from me and the tubing. Had to re-draw the med, re-hang new fluids with new tubing, etc. ugh....

NOPE, OP, you are NOT alone!!!!!!

Specializes in ICU / PCU / Telemetry / Oncology.

I once drew blood from a PICC line and I went to discard the flush syringe containing the "waste" blood. Without really paying attention, I inserted the syringe upside down into the sharps container without realizing that the container was overfilled (holiday weekend, lazy fools not around to switch out to empties). So something in the top of the opening pushed the plunger upwards .... and blood ejected from the syringe with such a force, splattering the wall and the ceiling of the patient's room! Desperately tried to wash it off with purple wipes, no deal! And the patient was asleep this whole time, and then woke up drowsily asking "Is that my blood up there?" ... it looked like a crime scene.

My supervisor laughed at me ... she called Housekeeping and by the following shift you would never know what had happened :p

I once had got the wrong tubing for blood, I realized that before I hung the blood, so I got the right type of tubing

and somehow between unspiking the old (but not used) tubing like 20 cc of blood poured. It looked like a blood

bath, all over the IV pump, pole, floor and tubing. Of course our 70year old GI Dr. decided to round at that moment followed by our 75 year old school cardiologist, They both looked at me like i was nuts mopping up blood, while explaining to them that this blood was unrelated to the GI bleed that the GI Doc was consulted for. Well all well that ends well, my supervisor just laughed other nurses came and helped me clean up and the pt also thought the whole situation was funny. ( however both of those Doctors still kinda of look at me with a wary eye)

Keep it coming, because I'm still laughing! :roflmao:

Specializes in Peds ED, Peds Stem Cell Transplant, Peds.

I had my spike go straight through a bag, it was for a peds patient and the plastic was much thinner I had ever seen before, and I had given lots of blood to peds patients, Blood was all over the curtain it was bad. Even the other nurse in there with me never seen that type of packaging before.

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