Leaking blood during transfusion

[fiveoclocksomewhere]

So the other day I hung blood for the first time ever, and the charge nurse was in the room with me to walk me through it. Very time consuming but she assured me that it gets easier the more you do it. Anyway, the pt had an 18 gauge iv and my charge nurse told me that they need at least a 20 gauge, but she had given blood through an 18 and that it should be fine. So we started the blood at 90ml/hr and the pt complained of itching at the site. Called the MD and she said to keep it going and see how she does. After about 30mins, blood starts seeping out all around the iv site and around the tape. Stopped the infusion and the charge came in to see it, said it had infiltrated. Is this because of the 18gauge?? Or did some kind of reaction happen?

[goodgrief]

I just drip mine in without a pump, if it's freely flowing that usually means it's patent and working. just look at the gtt factor on the tubing packaging and count your drips/minute appropriately, most blood tubing is 10gtts/mL compared to normal macro tubing which is 15gtts/mL.

if you run blood on a pump you can't always be sure your IV is patent