Patients die when turned on left side??

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in ICU Stepdown, Home Health.

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?

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I don't know about that, but it sounds logical, with CHF pts. I've a few die shortly after a really good bed bath, but I hadn't paid attention to which side they were on. I joked that I cleaned them to death....

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Specializes in Cardiac, ER.

Have heard the same thing for many years,...have had pt's die while on the L side,..I'm thinking they were gonna die anyway,...;) Have worked w/nurses and aides who will tie a knot in the bottom left corner of the top sheet on a pt's bed to "keep them from dying on my shift",.even seen that "work",..but again,....

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Ortho.

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.

I have also been told by a doctor that people with pneumonia on one side will tend to lay on the affected side more.

There are a lot of old tales that come with nursing, take them with a grain of salt and yes a little humor sometimes. You are not going to cause a patients death by turning them on their left side. They were heading there in the first place.

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Specializes in Ortho, Med surg and L&D.
Has anyone heard of or experienced a patient dying after being turned on their left side?... Anyone every experienced this?

I've experienced rumors of it and also heard the rumors of other things to. Anyone come across and EBP or research on this?

Gen

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Specializes in ICU.
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)

Ummmm..:uhoh21:..it's the right lung that has 3 lobes.

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I heard this from the movie house on haunted hill (the original). She said you die b/c your heart is on the left side and it makes your heart work harder. The girl said she was trying to kill herself so she slept on her left side. :lol2: I'm thinking that might take a long time!

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Specializes in pure and simple psych.
I heard this from the movie house on haunted hill (the original). She said you die b/c your heart is on the left side and it makes your heart work harder. The girl said she was trying to kill herself so she slept on her left side. :lol2: I'm thinking that might take a long time!

BWAAAAAHAAAAAAHAAAAA:lol2: :lol2:

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Specializes in Ortho, Med surg and L&D.
I heard this from the movie house on haunted hill (the original). She said you die b/c your heart is on the left side and it makes your heart work harder. The girl said she was trying to kill herself so she slept on her left side. :lol2: I'm thinking that might take a long time!

Ha,

Yeah, I heard that over 30 years ago too.

Thing is, the heart is located medial steinal right? I mean mostly middle and a wee bit to the left...so, unless you weigh 600 pounds and it is all on your right side, what difference would laying on the left or right make?

Gen

p.s. edit to add: oh yeah, and for the 30 years or so since I've heard that I "had" been sleeping on my right because my little kid mind thought it made sense...now that I am grown I am trying to break the habit and sleep on the right! What a doofus!

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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.

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Specializes in Education, Administration, Magnet.

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.

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Perhaps this dates back to anything associated with the left being evil or sinister.

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