Patients die when turned on left side??

Nurses General Nursing

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Has anyone heard of or experienced a patient dying after being turned on their left side? Some more experienced nurses were joking once about it, swearing it was true. And actually it happened to me once, a patient who was very ill, in the dying process, and I was turning her q 2 hrs, she died shortly after I turned her to her left side. I've heard it's harder for the heart to work in that position, and one that's very weak and on it's way out can't hold up to it sometimes. Anyone every experienced this?

Specializes in ORTHOPAEDICS-CERTIFIED SINCE 89.

I've tied many a knot in the left corner of the sheet. But I also sleep on my left side, except when I had rt sided pneumonia one time, and I slept on the right because it splinted better when I coughed. Hmmm.

So if you don't turn to the left then one turn is to the back and so there's the aspiration problem. To the right hmmmm maybe TOO much VC compression.

I agree with ya.

Specializes in CVICU, PACU, OR.
I have heard that it is all about the vena cava. If a person is laying on the left side, the vena cava is free to push more blood to the heart, which makes the heart work more, it has a bigger workload. When the patient is turned to the right, the vena cava is supposedly still under some compression, but not on the left side. That is why they recommend the pregnant women to sleep on the left side, and that is why they turn pregnant women to the left, when there are some problems.

I work in critical care and if I have a patient with a labile blood pressure they will more likely tolerate being turned on the left side for the same reason.

Specializes in SICU.
I dont really know how "true" it is, but if you think about your cardiac physiology and lung function (consider the left lung has 3 lobes) and is less likely to expand fully when lying on the side it is very possible that death may be hastened if a patient is weakened and in the process of dying.

:nono:

Dig out that ol' A&P book... LOLOLOLOL...

I thought it had less to do with lung expansion and more to do with blood pressure...think about it:

In L&D they frequently keep women with PIH delivering on their left sides to keep their BP lower than when they are on their backs; the reverse is true for little those little old patient's struggling to keep a blood pressure. Turn them off their back (where their pressure is acceptable) onto their leftside, and down goes the BP, and here comes the code : P

Seen it happen a couple of times.

I was pregnant with my oldest child (now 22) and I was toxemic, I was informed my my obstetrician to lay on my left side to control the blood pressure...

later in life, a physician told me, if you want to lower BP lay on your left side, if you want to control GERD, lay on your right side....bizarre how all that works, but it does...so maybe if the patient lays on his left side, and his pressures are already sort of low...hmmmm....

the human body is bizarre...yet amazing....

katie

Specializes in ICU, Research, Corrections.
If a patient is so weak or close to death that turning them to the left might hasten their departure, I don't think it should really matter. The pt is obviously pretty close to death anyway. If it's not "turning on their left" it'll be cleaning them to death, putting the head of the bed up too high or some other small act which will push them over the edge.

I agree; I have seen it happen many times. Turn to the left or a turn to the right,or cleaning up stool, or moving bed to different room, BAM right into a code. I have had residents order MRIs or catscans on these kind of patients and told them "that isn't going to happen, too unstable to move!" They have never argued about it luckily.

Specializes in Paed Ortho, PICU, CTICU, Paeds Retrieval.

I too have heard this for many years... except I was told that a LSDR (left sided death roll) is to do with pressure on a dying left ventricle. Supposedly this slight increase in the pressure of the systemic 'pump' can push the heart into final arrest.

Specializes in med/surg, rural, ER.

oh dear, I'm supposed to sleep on my L side because I'm pregnant... and now I'm going to die because I'm on my L side? :uhoh3: I guess I just won't sleep--wait, I already don't sleep, I'm always up to the bathroom :lol2:

Specializes in ICU, SDU, OR, RR, Ortho, Hospice RN.

;) Well I work in Hospice and have not really noticed a trend of placing my patients on the left side which has hastened their death. I am going to take particular notice now.

Heck I could do my own little research paper eh? LOL

I shall report back ;)

yes, actively dying patients gen do die on their left sides(harder for heart to pump) In my 33 yrs of nursing ,seen it many,many times sue

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