What would you do if you came home from a hospital procedure, and several hours later realized they'd left the cath needle in your arm?

Not looking at your pictures – no thanks! I think I would have gone to my doctor or back to the hospital if possible to have it taken it out for safety’s sake. I would not raise hell but I would tell the nurse or someone at some point.

I’m not laughing at you or making fun, not at all, but I would hope that I would notice this before I left the hospital. :/

I would have called the hospital, taken a photo, and then taken it out. Both my husband and I have taken them out for each other before when we had IV’s at home. It’s done all the time.

I would have called the hospital and asked if there was a reason they left it in. Then I would have waited til someone came home to help me remove it. No big. No pictures. No fuss.

Wild fucking horses pulling at my tallywacker wouldn’t persuade me to hit those links.

At least it was the catheter in your arm.

Also, I agree with @canidmajor. No big deal.

I would have waited until someone was home to help me get it out. I would not call the hospital and raise a ruckus. Stuff happens.

@Symbeline Because my loose sweatshirt sleeve was covering it, and I couldn’t feel it. Nurses couldn’t see it, so we all forgot about it.

Of course there was no reason to leave it in @canidmajor. Why would you even think there would be? My husband asked that same question: “Why did they do that?” Uh, duh. When was the last time you got sent home with a cath needle still in your arm?

I agree. No big deal.

Not “of course” at all, @Dutchess_III. I have had to go back for more tests after testing procedures, and the port has been left in. It is not unheard of. Not knowing anything about what tests you had or why, since your details were more about your bloody outrage and your little slam-of-Christians, I could not possibly know if more medical was to come.
You asked “what would you do…”. That’s what I would do.

I can not imagine medical people sending people home with catheters in their arms, to be used the next day, or whatever. I think the risk of infection would be too great. Have to check with Rarebear.

I’m surprised the medical staff forgot it was there and I’m even more surprised you forgot.

Shrugs. I underwent a battery of tests. I was there for 5 hours. Easy enough to forget, since I couldn’t feel it or see it. I was distracted by the electrodes that were stuck all over my chest, which I had to leave on for 48 hours, and they itched. Just got to remove them a couple of hours ago. Yay.

Like anything else, @Dutchess_III, if done properly the risk is minimized.

The risk of infection is low. The typical little catheter for an IV line can stay in up to about 4 days. The longer ones can stay in much longer, but they are done differently.

I already said—call the hospital and let them know. They’ll want to know the information to go over their discharge protocols, and a safety event problem will be generated.

But is it common to send people home with the cath ports in their arm @osoraro?

It’s not common. Only if you were supposed to continue some sort of IV therapy at home would it be part of the routine.

The safety event report will give the hospital the ability to know a nurse (or whoever is supposed to remove it) screwed up and address the issue.

I think you have severely and wildly exaggerated the amount of blood.
Barely more than a few droplets!

LOL! You looked! Mostly it was in the sink, but the water running washed it away.

I’d go back and have them remove it. Whether the nurse still has a job or not has nothing to do with me. I certainly wouldn’t remove it myself.

I took the liberty to appropriately adapt the picture to the level described by you as all over the floor

LOL!! I didn’t kind of make it sound that way! Nice picture @ragingloli.

I would call the hospital, explain my situation, and ask them what I should do (go back and have someone do it for me or have them walk me through what I needed to do).

Whether I would be mad or just annoyed would depend on how the rest of her performance had been. Did she do her job well and this was just a glitch? Or was she already a terrible nurse and this was just the cherry on top?

I’d also be annoyed with myself for not noticing before I left the hospital. Would have saved myself a headache regardless of how I felt about the nurse.

Better than when the nurse forgot that my catheter was still in. She grabbed the tubing and started to wind it up. I had to grab an end really quickly before the slack ended. That would have sucked. I don’t even like it when they need to wiggle the needle to find your vein.

@ragingloli BEST

I’m actually going to contact the nurse directly tomorrow.

Didn’t need instructions. Just get the tape off and pull the needle out.

print out the photoshopped picture and take it with you to scare them.
“look at the mess i made because of you!”

Even when I think I know the answer, I usually double triple check stuff like this. I’m just neurotic like that. :P

@ragingloli LOL

Ok, first, I am not making comparisons here but…...

Many years ago I had a friend whose dog got hit by a car. He took him into the vet who did a thorough exam, patched up the scrapes, sewed up the cuts and sent them both home.

The poor dog just laid there on his bed for over a day with this sad, tired, beat-up look on his face. Finally my friend decided that surely the dog needed to relieve himself after so many hours so he picked him up and carried him out to the yard where he set him down in the grass and indicated he needed go to the bathroom.

The poor dog just stood there; head hung down, legs trembling, refusing to move.

After several minutes my friend decided nothing was going to happen so he walked over to pick him up and take him back inside. As he reached up under cradling the dog in his arms and carrying him back he noticed something shiny under the dogs tail. Looking closer he saw the end of a thermometer projecting from the poor dogs anus. He set the dog down again, reached over and pulled out the thermometer.

The dog took off like a shot!

He got about 20’ away. squatted and left a huge pile then jumped up ran around the yard for several minutes; tail wagging, tongue hanging out, jumping , bounding about, peeing on everything he could just like a young puppy again.

The dog recovered and lived a happy life for several more years.

My friend kept the thermometer in a small box on the coffee table for many years. He never said anything to the vet about it figuring that it was forgotten in the of turmoil making sure the dog was alright and not seriously injured and there was no need to embarrass the vet over it.

Poor sad dog!

To my knowledge, I’ve never had a cath needle. Are they still metal?
There’s no way I’d not notice and leave the hospital with that foreign object embedded in my skin.
I can’t imagine a scenario where I would try to remove it from my vein myself. If I couldn’t reasonably return to the hospital, I’d go to the nearest health care facility and have them take it out, brushing it off as an oversite at an another unnamed facility.

It’s just the small tube they use to put drugs in your arm, or hand, or wherever they tend to stick you. They stick you with a needle, but the tube is what is left in your arm as a way to deliver meds or hydrate you, etc. Most people would just call it the place they connect an IV.

I would most likely go back to the place that did the testing and ask (in a cheerful voice) “uh, are you missing a cath port?” and show it to them.

Why would I do it in a cheerful voice @sahID?

If you didn’t know it was there you would leave, @ibstubro. This is a small town. It was after 5:30. If I thought I couldn’t handle it myself, the only place TO go was back to the hospital.

It was no big deal, really. Just kind of freaky when I realized it.

cath port is probably the wrong term, but you know what I mean. IV port?

I’d call the place and let them know. Then I’d probably remove it myself. When I’ve done it before I ussualy peel the dressing off carefully, tape a bit of gauze over the insertion point before taking out to reduce the mess. Yanking it out with dressing on sometimes leaves the catheter in the vein disconnected from the bit on the outside. It’s an absolute nightmare to get out then.

@ibstubro there’s a metal stylet to get the catheter into you but it is removed to leave a flexible plastic tube in the vein.

The hard part was peeling the tape off without causing the needle to wiggle under my skin. I only had one hand to work with. But I managed. See @ragingloli‘s pic to see the aftermath. :D

Pull it out.

Thanks, @Lightlyseared.
I still doubt I would leave a hospital with an unwanted foreign object embedded in my skin.

You’d be surprised how keen people are to leave hospital.

@ibstubro, Dude. After 5 hours and about half a dozen tests it was easy enough to forget. I couldn’t see it and I couldn’t feel it.

You said dude!

I can only remember having had one hospital procedure. I was…er…shall we say prostrate at the time and if the doctor had failed to remove any equipment used in the exam, you can bet I’d have given him shit over it.