picc line migration

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Hi I have been nursing since 1992, and have never run acroos this situation, A picc lne had migrated out about 10- 12cm, the central line team came assest line call phycian, he then order said line cleaned and readvanced, xray orderd found inplace, strat use of said line pt sent home with home health, TPN management, line fully functional pt. started low grade fever 8days later, full blown sepsis 12days later, 3week hospitalization followed. pt. now filled law suite against dr. and hospital. any thoughts???

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HOLY *&%$#@* BATMAN!

I would never have reinserted this PICC, regardless of what the Dr said. This is totally against any and all that I've ever read. Even doing a change of PICC (wire-reintroducer over-then reinsert new PICC) is an iffy thing to do. I've always pulled the PICC and started from scratch,one time was on someone with breast cancer, so only one arm to use and only one good vein. I'd say there is cause for a lawer making $$$ here.

However, an infection from line insertion usually shows in 2 days, after that it's a usage of the line issue. This makes the time-line interesting. I'd be interested to hear the results of this.

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Specializes in Clinical Infusion Educator.

Mark,

The patient has a good chance of filing and winning here.

I am surprised that your "central line team" would follow that MD's order when it was totally against standards. They courts will use INS (Infusion Nurses Society) standards to assess deviations from norm, which this definetly is!

It's a shame that this pt didn't have nurses on the team who know when NOT to follow a physician's order!

DD

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