Post-mortem care

[Gabby-RN]

What is your hospital's policy on removing the ET tube during post-mortem care? We can remove it as long as the medical examiner is not taking the case, otherwise we have to cut it at the lip line. I personally prefer to cut the tube rather than leave it because it can be a scary last image for family to have stuck in their heads . Other nurses prefer to leave it saying it shows the family we tried to save them.

We're in the ED so we leave them all but I don't see it making any difference for the Family whether it's cut at the lip or not... It's still there.

[katierobin23]

I'm in NICU, we leave all lines and tubes in place if the parents want an autopsy. If it's clear that the baby died of extreme prematurity and an autopsy isn't needed, we take the tube out.

[Gabby-RN]

I work in the ED too, I should have specified.

[That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

Everything stays in unless the coroner signs off on the case, then it all comes out.

[Altra, BSN, RN]

As others said above, nothing gets removed until the medical examiner has been contacted. Family have already been with the patient well before then, possibly even during the code.