D.i.c.

[zlatamoya]

My critical care instructor said she has had 6 patients in 20 years with D.I.C. All of them recieved blood wide open, none survived. Has anyone ever had patients with D.I.C. survive? If so, what treatments have you used besides blood? Activated protein C? Thank you!

[Haunted]

RHABDO? What is rhabdo? :doh:

Rhabdomylosis (spell check?) is residual soft tissue breakdown, often from immobility. Example, had a young adult male hiker who took a tumble, broke his leg and was immobile on a hillside while waiting for help to arrive. His labs were specific to rhabdo and he was monitored hemotologically for a few days before he was discharged.

[BBFRN, BSN, PhD]

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000473.htm

Here's a link about rhabdo. I saw it mostly when I worked in trauma, so most of my patients had it from crush injuries to the kidneys or severe alcohol abuse.

[Christie RN2006]

I have personally only had one patient in DIC we gave him tons of Cryo, PRBC, FFP, etc. His was a mild form, but he had a lot of other things going on and didn't end up making it. They had a patient just recently in one of the other ICUs where I work that went into full blown DIC and was bleeding from everywhere! She was basically a 2:1 patient and they were pushing blood, other meds and coding her off and on for about 14 hours before she finally died. The doctor came around and personally thanked every nurse that helped with her during those 14 hours. That was one awful night at the hospital... it seemed like every patient that night was going down the tubes!

[EmmaG, RN]

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000473.htm

Here's a link about rhabdo. I saw it mostly when I worked in trauma, so most of my patients had it from crush injuries to the kidneys or severe alcohol abuse.

A nurse I worked with developed a mild case after riding a bike marathon.

[jmgrn65, RN]

Have seen DIC a few times, main treatment is Heparin. Treatment of symptoms if hgb is low then of course blood and Platelets. Have seen pts survive.

[cardiacRN2006, ADN, RN]

A nurse I worked with developed a mild case after riding a bike marathon.

Ours are pts who were found down baking in the sun for hours during the peak of summer...

[Cardiac-RN]

saw 2 cases of DIC on my unit, both younger females, neither survived : ( main tx included heparin, FFP and blood, lots of fluids and system support.

[Semele]

Not too long ago we treated an infant with DIC. It was horrific and I hope to never see it again. This poor little thing was bleeding from all the little holes we made and we were still having a terrible time trying to get lab because it would clot in the tube or sometimes in the syringe. There was no time to get a central line. He came in through the ER with a three day history of fever and vomiting. 5 wks old.

We were able to get an iv and gave lots of FFP and everything else the doc could think of, but he still bled out fairly quickly. Toward the end he was bleeding from every orifice. CPR was ugly for the two minutes that it lasted.

That experience pretty much shook every one up for a long time. The doc ordered DIC profiles on like three more patients over the next few weeks. Haunting.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

Oh Lord, Semele, how awful. I can't imagine a child with DIC. I just can't.

We recently had a lady who'd had an elective AB, kept bleeding and when she got to us, the GYNs realized that the baby's head was still inside her. :angryfire

She went into DIC, spent several days in SICU and got 44 units of blood (that's not a typo) along with platelets and FFP and whatever else. Ended up with a hysterectomy at 24. Lucky lucky lady. She is still alive.