I am checking a machine that delivered an air bubble to a patient (New Mexico) because the tech attached the dummy air chamber. Why would she do that? Machine checks out good, too. She says she does it all the time, but won't volunteer any further info. What's her advantage? Thanks!
Majit

I have heard that some peolpe when priming a machine would do this to keep the machine from alarming during setup. They would then take the dummy chamber off before patient use. But I feel this is a bad habit to get into. You should never try to bypass any of the saftey systems on a machine.

Some staff used to do this to save time during priming. They could put the machine in test without priming the the blood lines.They would forget to take it out and this is very dangerous. This is why no one does it any more and most clinics have put policies in place that dont allow this.She just plainly forgot and made a mistake.

quote:

Originally posted by Majit Laredo:
I am checking a machine that delivered an air bubble to a patient (New Mexico) because the tech attached the dummy air chamber. Why would she do that? Machine checks out good, too. She says she does it all the time, but won't volunteer any further info. What's her advantage? Thanks!
Majit

Personnaly I do not see any advantage in using this dummy chamber. If the dummy chamber was in the air det. module where was the venous chamber that carried the patient's blood? Did nobody notice this? You are very fortunate that the patient did not die and that the facility is not being sued. There is no good reason that this practice should have ever been adopted.
If it is to save time

The only way that air can get to the patient through the venous line is to pass through the detector and if it is working properly it cant happen.What I believe is that the person forgot to remove the dummy chamber and left the venous segment hanging.Plus dummy chambers were only used pre treatment never during the run.Years ago prior to initiating Dialysis all of these MACHINE CHECKS were done.Please people lets pay attention to detail.

quote:

Originally posted by gizzman:

quote:

Originally posted by Majit Laredo:
[b]I am checking a machine that delivered an air bubble to a patient (New Mexico) because the tech attached the dummy air chamber. Why would she do that? Machine checks out good, too. She says she does it all the time, but won't volunteer any further info. What's her advantage? Thanks!
Majit

Personnaly I do not see any advantage in using this dummy chamber. If the dummy chamber was in the air det. module where was the venous chamber that carried the patient's blood? Did nobody notice this? You are very fortunate that the patient did not die and that the facility is not being sued. There is no good reason that this practice should have ever been adopted.
If it is to save time

[/B]

Unfortunately, the patient did die at the emergency room of an air embolus. More of the story as it has unfolded: She now says she "got an air bubble alarm during treatment and decided to clean the sensor, so I put the dummy on." This sounds a little obtuse to me. My suspicions are that the set-up was with the dummy and she simply forgot to take it off. The patient started having pains and gurgling about 5 minutes into treatment. Anyone out there have any other possible senarios? Thanks for all the responses so far! Majit

What tipe of machine was used,because the new machines have a blood sensor below the air detector and arms the air detector automatically.If pt. was in distress after 5min.it seems the line where not properly primed.

I haven't been on the site for quite a while and am very disturbed while reading this. We do use dummy chambers but only when recirculating after an air alarm that we can't clear. My feeling is that a dummy chamber should never be used when a patient is hooked up. Our machines will not "dialyze" with a dummy in place because the air sensor does not "see" blood in the lines. This is a very unfortunate and expensive lesson to learn, but thank you for posting it so that all the rest of us out there can learn from this experience as well.

I handled this situation a lot of times, I mean the Air in blood. That may be due to poor priming or loosend conection to the fistula needle or saline cline clamp kept opend and so on, but I never use a dummy venous chamber for bypassing the air detector. I don't think this bypassing method is a healthy practice. In my practice if I found air bubbles in the extrcorporial line, I will disconet the line and put recirculation immediately. Then open the saline line and aspirate the froth from the A chamber. Then put the dialyser in upright position and remove all the microbubles fom the circuit. It will take almost two to three minutes at the mean time we can mute the alarm by pressing the mute button. I think this is the better way to correct the problem.