re: Prayers Needed from the OT Community *Update Page 28*

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As an RN I would say the empty IV bag would have had nothing to do with your son’s passing. My heart is breaking for you.

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They kept having problems getting his IV to flow so they had placed a pressure sleeve on the outside of the IV bag and we're applying pressure to it.

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My heartbreaks reading this.

However, in contrast to what was posted here re: "the empty IV bag having had nothing to do" with the situation, the empty IV bag could have a great deal to do with this. Hopefully not.

IV bags are formulated with air in them . . .




The second image is an antibiotic IV infusion, but it more clearly show the fluid-air line just below the word "Gentamicin".

The reason air is included in the bag is so one can more easily observe the volume of IV solution infused. Once the IV bag has infused and is empty, the air remains in the bag or occasionally in the proximal IV tubing. It does not pass to, or endanger the patient.

However, if the bag is placed under pressure, every bit of that air can be forced through the tubing, and into the patient. It is enough air to result in a lethal air embolism, even in an adult. For that reason, providers should never put one of these bags under pressure (i.e., the sleeve you seemed to describe) without first removing air from the bag. If the air is removed, pressurizing the infusion is safe. In this case, if air was not removed, an empty IV bag still in a pressurized sleeve would be extremely concerning.

I hope for your sake, and for sake of the providers involved that none of the above is applicable. But if it is, I suspect you would want to know.