December 2016
Denise
Gordon
,
RN
Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit
Froedtert & Medical College of Wisconsin-Froedtert Hospital
Milwaukee
,
WI
United States
We had a critical patient in the CVICU and Denise Gordon called the physician to bedside to assist. His BP was critically low and he was close to losing his BP completely. The patient was maxed out on multiple vasopressors and we were running out of options. The patient was complaining of excruciating arm pain that coincided with the location of the patient's central line located at the left IJ. The pain became increasingly worse with each increase in the drip rate. Multiple IV boluses and medications were added with no change in the patient's condition. It became increasingly clear to Denise that something was wrong with the patient's central line. She approached the MD at bedside and insisted that a CXR must be completed for the patient's wellbeing to verify the central line. Denise continued to be persistent and advocating for her patient convinced that the line must've migrated out of position; she continued to be denied by the physician. On a whim, Denise switched the lines to the dialysis catheter to rule out line issues. Immediately the patients BP returned to baseline. The CXR was eventually completed and Denise was in fact correct, the central line had migrated out of the vessel and was infusing a vesicant into the patient's tissue. The incident could have ended with the loss of a patient's life but the patient lived and was treated accordingly, thanks to Denise Gordon.