Fluid Warmer

[joeb1, ASN, BSN, RN]

I was wondering a couple things, folks. First, do you all have warmers that you keep fluids in, particularly IV fluids for OR use? Secondly, have you ever had a baby suffer 2nd and 3rd degree burns from those fluids? I'll explain... On a shift ahead of mine, a baby was very fussy. One of our nurses had the brilliant idea of taking a warm IV bag, and wrapping the baby in a blanket, directly around the bag! Over the course of however long(Not sure how long), the bag placed large 2-3rd degree burns on both thighs, and all around the umbilical cord.(The cord itself blackened) I never thought of our fluids as that hot, but over time, a baby who can't move, it makes sense. As result, we no longer carry warm IV fluids, a contiuous bickering topic anesthesia brings up. Has this ever happened or have you heard of it happening?

[ebear, BSN, RN]

Anesthesia has every right to complain about not having warm I.V. fluids. Maintaining the patient's temp in the O.R. is extremely important; however, the fluid warmers should be thermostat controlled and should be used ONLY for I.V. and irrigation fluids (usually intra-abdominal). A thermometer should be inside each warmer and temp checked daily and logged (this is for those warmers not kept in each individual O.R.). The patient should never have these bags applied next to the skin. There are warm blankets available for that purpose. What a terrible mistake this was!! It is my opinion that this nurse and the hospital should get ready for a major lawsuit.

[joeb1, ASN, BSN, RN]

ebear,

Thanks for your input. I did not mean to imply anesthesia has no right, in fact, I find it rediculous that they (OR staff) should have to bring their own fluids from the Main OR. Please don't think our patients are not getting the required treatment. They are, but only due to more work than needed from the OR nurses. Yes, this nurse has been cut loose, but I still think the day wil come when I'm to come to court. ( I wasn't even there at the time, but I did take over care later, and my name is on the chart) This is an unfortunate incident, and I believe the parents have every right to bring this to court.......Our hospital should just open up its checkbook now......

[ebear, BSN, RN]

joeb1,

If the parents choose to pursue the issue legally, it would more than likely settle out of court. What's to defend?? I hope the baby did not need skin grafts, etc.

I'm sure that your patients get the care they need! It's just so unfortunate that someone made a very poor error in judgment.

[jwk]

I was wondering a couple things, folks. First, do you all have warmers that you keep fluids in, particularly IV fluids for OR use? Secondly, have you ever had a baby suffer 2nd and 3rd degree burns from those fluids? I'll explain... On a shift ahead of mine, a baby was very fussy. One of our nurses had the brilliant idea of taking a warm IV bag, and wrapping the baby in a blanket, directly around the bag! Over the course of however long(Not sure how long), the bag placed large 2-3rd degree burns on both thighs, and all around the umbilical cord.(The cord itself blackened) I never thought of our fluids as that hot, but over time, a baby who can't move, it makes sense. As result, we no longer carry warm IV fluids, a contiuous bickering topic anesthesia brings up. Has this ever happened or have you heard of it happening?

Yep - real brilliant idea.

There's really no good reason to be providing pre-heated IV fluids to anesthesia. We have fluid warmers specifically for that purpose if we need them. For the short time patients are in the OR for a C-Section, it really shouldn't be an issue.

[dawngloves, BSN, RN]

Why not just make it a policy to not put warm bags of NSS on babies instead of taking the fluids out of your OR for their intended use?

[Jill10191130]

I saw a doctor place bottles of sterile water out of a warmer and place directly against a patient to warm her post c-section. She also had some burns. She was the daughter of nurse there.