question about a hickman line

[jjoey124]

I realized last night that I did not clamp my second lumen after flushing and it may have been a few hours with it being unclamped. It worked thereafter and I was able to give medications and flush with no issues but I'm just terrified that I forgot to clamp it for that period of time. How bad is that/what are the risks with it being unclamped for a time? For reference it has a positive pressure cap on the end. 

[DavidFR, BSN, MSN, RN]

The cap and the clamp are a double mechanism to protect in exactly these situatuions. If you forget to cap AND clamp you may be in trouble but you'll usually get some backflow and realise straight away. Most of us have forgotten one or the other at some time. It gives you a scare but there's no harm done. 

Your line still worked?  Your patient was OK? Learn from this but don't stress. Move on. Seems like  everything's OK.