She got fired...

AgentBeast, MSN, RN · May 24, 2012

nobody's gonna bleed to death from a vein outside the chest unless it's the femoral, and even then good pressure will work just fine. i think either the op is making this up, or the person who told him/her is making it up, or somebody has an exaggerated sense of danger.

hey, i scraped my knee once and almost bleed to death.

tothepointeLVN, LVN · May 24, 2012

Sure you can - except me!
----- Dave

But I even did the special extra credit intensive couture tabour beading seminar with the lady from the Lesage school of embroidery. They do the beading for Chanel and Dior. The seminar was entirely in french too.

So yeah I'll make it real pretty for you. Add a little sequined heart or something.

nurseprnRN, BSN, RN · May 24, 2012

oooh, poor baby...here's a spidey bandaid for ya. :nurse:

(we used to kiss it to make it better but not since standard precautions came in.)

tothepointeLVN, LVN · May 24, 2012

What about the spoonful of sugar that my mum gave me to stop crying?

Creamsoda, ASN, RN · May 24, 2012

I was in my Ethics class today and one girl started talking about how her friend, an RN was with a patient when they started to bleed out. She said that the patient needed their vein sutured up or they would die. They called the dr and it took him over a hour to get to the room. She knew that she needed a dr in the room, but knew that if she waited the patient would be dead. She saved the patient and her and the dr both got fired.
How is it possible that she saved someone's life, but she gets fired for doing so?

Practising medicine without a license? Why couldnt she hold pressure. That should have done it. If not and the patient was bleeding out, call a code. suturing is not her responsibility

blondy2061h, MSN, RN · May 24, 2012

nobody's gonna bleed to death from a vein outside the chest unless it's the femoral, and even then good pressure will work just fine. i think either the op is making this up, or the person who told him/her is making it up, or somebody has an exaggerated sense of danger.

and if you bleed to death from that, it's likely because the femoral artery got severed also.

fostercatmom, ASN, BSN, RN · May 24, 2012

Oh My God, I'm laughing so hard... My family thinks I've lost it... Maybe you will suture it back on????

ArrowRN, BSN, RN · May 24, 2012

And if you bleed to death from that, it's likely because the femoral artery got severed also.

thats exactly what I was thinking, come on a person can't bleed out from a vein, a vein bleeds out so slowly its not even considered a major emergency. I was an EMT basic for 4 years, been on many severe accident where I had to stop bleeding before carrying the patient to a facility, with could be up to an hour away, but even us were not qualified to stitch up a person. There many things within a nurses scope of practice that they can do to stop bleeding that is within scope of practice. Its all BLS and basic first responder stuff,call for help...pressure,bandage, and elevate and besides, like so many are saying, if she was in a hospital, and a floor doctor was unavailable, why not get the person stabilized in the ED, there is always a doctor on standby there, some hospital even have paramedics on site. This "story" just sounds like that...a story to get people to understand what is within their scope of practice, but seriously, she could have came up with a more believable story.

canesdukegirl, BSN, RN · May 25, 2012

Sorry, OP...I think you got suckered into believing a story that simply isn't true. There is NO WAY this nurse could have sutured a vein. She would be required to have loupes to see what she was suturing, she would have to have a frazier suction tip to suction out the blood that was in the way of this tiny little needle being passed on a tiny little suture (think 7-0 or 8-0 Prolene on a double armed needle). She would have required a sterile instrument basket containing Castro needle holders, fine metz and iris scissors. Furthermore, she would have had to either wear a headlight or have a mobile OR light in order to see what she was suturing. She would also have to have a vein retractor in order to isolate the vein, would have had to dissect out all of the tissue surrounding the vein and would have had to then close the skin. It just isn't believable. At all.

allnurses Guide · May 25, 2012

Why didn't the nurse just put some Neosporin on it and call it a day?

(oh wait, no Neosporin without a doc's order, EITHER!!)

VICEDRN, BSN, RN · May 25, 2012

And where did the suture material come from? You can't just obtain suture material...not even in the er, especially not of the special sort required for this procedure. A zero silk maybe from a chest tube tray....but this? No way in heck!

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · May 25, 2012

Sorry, OP...I think you got suckered into believing a story that simply isn't true. There is NO WAY this nurse could have sutured a vein. She would be required to have loupes to see what she was suturing, she would have to have a frazier suction tip to suction out the blood that was in the way of this tiny little needle being passed on a tiny little suture (think 7-0 or 8-0 Prolene on a double armed needle). She would have required a sterile instrument basket containing Castro needle holders, fine metz and iris scissors. Furthermore, she would have had to either wear a headlight or have a mobile OR light in order to see what she was suturing. She would also have to have a vein retractor in order to isolate the vein, would have had to dissect out all of the tissue surrounding the vein and would have had to then close the skin. It just isn't believable. At all.

Yeah! What she said!