selling my patient's blood for an emergency -patient and brought up to legal.

[Irwin0111]

My patient 84 years old with ongoing cystoclysis is in his day 13th under my care, the same for his 2 units of blood at the laboratory,expiring after 2 days.My nursing evaluation reveals no future use of bld transfusion. he has his meals taken well, lab results of hg was normal if he has a future use it would have been predictable.One patient on the otherhand medicine case with 3 times dialysis per week.his son is asking his physician for blood transfusion, for the patient was evidently weak, very pale, shouting in his struggles ofheadache, lab reasults shows hgb of 84 and he does not eat well enough. he has rupture of veins during his dialysis session.resident doctor is waiting confirmation of the request from the AP, and asked the son to start scouting for blood. Aware it is sunday he can't possibly buy blood anywhere for such an emergency need. So hewent to asked if i can help him and his dad.I offerred my patient blood without any approval from tha patient or his relative for that matter. Because i can't talked to my patient because he speaks a avery different language. My intention of taking the payment is to buy him blood from the other patient on my care that never gotten to use his blood. To replace his blood and to avoid expiration of his own available blood . for what I thought to be a helping gesture for an emergency need CAME OUT VERY COMPLICATED FOR ME TO HANDLE. it was brought up to legal because co nurses went on their way on exagerate things because of the money i accepted.what can be a better way to hadle the case on my part?

[truern]

The things I learn at allnurses.com!!

I honestly never realized that in some places you have to find and purchase your own blood?!

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

never take money from any patient or family member. That always infers you are trying to profit from someone's situation. (like selling babies, or drugs). The Blood Bank ought to control this situation. Blood in our facility must stay in the Blood Bank until the patient is ready to be transfused. If blood gets to the floor and cannot be hung for more than 30 minutes, for whatever reason, then it must be returned to the blood bank. Your facility should have some protocols regarding this issue. If not, do you have a social worker, or someone who can assist the family or patient? I think you were trying to do the right thing, but it all came out the wrong way. Hope your patient is doing well.

[BabyRN2Be]

Wow... I would think that it's best not to accept money from patients. It sounds like quite a mess.

[redheadindixie]

When I read this my first thought was "Is this for real?"

I think things are done very differently in the US.

We definitely can't take money, and the lab in in charge of locating blood.

24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But my mother-in law is from the Phillipines, so I know things are very different there.

Good luck with this situation.

[rnmi2004]

Yes, it does sound very complicated. Kiwit, since most of us here are from the USA & it sounds like things are done very differently in the Phillippines, I'm not sure you'll get much help. I'd be very interested to learn more about scouting for blood. Are there no blood banks in your country? Is buying & selling blood in the private sector a common practice?

[smk1, LPN]

The things I learn at allnurses.com!!

I honestly never realized that in some places you have to find and purchase your own blood?!

i heard that this is the case in India (was researching for a paper last semester) truly frightening, I hope we can move more and more toward bloodless medicine techniques to reduce the need for transfusion.

[barefootlady, ADN, RN]

Thank you for this posting. I really learned something from it. Here in the USA , we are taught never to accept money from patients or families. Gifts are usually limited to candy, cookies, flowers but they are usually addressed to the whole unit. I hope things work out for you.

[jemb]

Having to scout for blood for our own patients is a totally foreign concept to most of us in the US. (I say most because I have heard the subject discussed among nurses who have immigrated to the USA.)

I can see how someone uninvolved could have thought you were trying to profit from the situation. Would you have been able to connect the two patients or families so they could have made the transaction without your getting caught in the middle?

[UK2USA]

forgive my bluntness:

you sold a patients blood under the flag of caring - and then kept the money? :angryfire :angryfire

perhaps i haven't understood your plight correctly, but from what i understand you were lucky not to have been sacked on the spot!

what would you have done if this was a family looking for a sperm donor and you had access to frozen sperm?

this patients blood is his own property (and no-one elses). you have overstepped the mark to sell it without his express consent.

[IamRN]

i heard that this is the case in India (was researching for a paper last semester) truly frightening,

The trading for profit of kidneys in India is also big.

[jayna, RN]

Where else but in Asia..... ......

Sorry for my ignorance and forgive my bluntness, but it happened and it was a huge huge problem there becos they have a similar issue in Nam.

Kiwit am sorry but, is there someone you could talked to before making a decision like that?

Hope something good will come your way.