Is this my fault??

[FLoridarnl]

I remember an incident from years ago. I had a pt who was acidotic, (pH 7.1 or 7.2) and the ER doctor didn't order Na+ Bicarb. The pt had a pos. TNI, and was to have a kidney stent put in before going to ICU. The admitting MD ordered IVF w/ Na+ Bicarb added, but not at a very fast rate. The patient ended up coding after her procedure, and the ICU RN named me as the cause of death b/c I didn't start the IVF in the ER. I asked an ER MD about this, and he said it was impossible. He said she may have died from too much sedation during her procedure, or other problems. She was very sick and looked mottled before having the procedure. Anyway, risk management questioned me b/c the ICU RN wrote a nasty incident report about me. I wasn't suspended and it wasn't reported on my RN license. Is this death my fault? Or was the ICU nurse just pointing fingers? I feel horrible about the situation still, b/c she said it was my fault. Though, I was never brought up in a law suit or anything like that. Any thoughts??

[SuesquatchRN, BSN, RN]

I would think that if there were anything wrong in your actions someone aside from the accuser would have mentioned it to you, no?

[HairCanada]

No , No

classic, pass the buck scenario. And to tell you the truth, the buck probably statrted in th OR, and they just wanted to pronounce in the ICU.

[suzanne4, RN]

definitely was not you...............

[ak47m203]

you know what! one thing that the ICU nurse should not do is accuse you. How could she/he verify that it is you the cause of his death. is he/she a medico legal officer? there's a lot of reason why the patient will die. the doctor/resident/attending should be part of his incident and cause too. not only you if he/she really knew what was talking about.

[seretide]

Just relax.It was not ur fault. How come the icu nurse pointing to u that ur at fault. Is she a medico legal officer? Eventhough the officer cannot accuse one without proper evidence or reason.

[Geeg]

Where was the stent put in? Was the pt in the OR? Were they attended by anesthesia? I think there needed to be ongoing assessment and treatment of this pt after they left ER. If the procedure took place in Radiology, I can see how the acidosis was probably ignored.

[LoriAlabamaRN]

TOTALLY not your fault from the info provided. Trust me, if the hospital had agreed with the RN, they would have further pursued the issue.

[MommyandRN]

I have had incident reports written up on patient issues. If there's ever something that is a RISK for harm.. that potentially could cause a problem, tehy have to write it up just to document. It doesnt go in teh patients cahrt I believe. It stays in some other records the hospital keeps. So they keep track of incidents. I know alot of ICU nurses that have written incident reports on ER nurses because of stuff like this. PEople also threaten to wrtie inciddne treports on stuff and never follow through. Don't worry about it. Just know in the future if something isn't done etc. then someone may end up reporting it.