one hour and five arterial catheters later…

January 12, 2006 at 9:00 pm | Posted in neurosurgery | Leave a comment

I placed my first arterial line. That poor lady. I must have stuck her 8 or 9 times before I got it all completely right. The first three times I missed, and from then on I hit the artery, but something else went wrong. Once the nurse didn’t have tubing ready, and the catheter clotted off before the tubing could be hooked up. Once the person helping me said it was venous blood, but when I took the catheter out, the profuse spurting blood said otherwise. Then I reused that catheter, hit it again, and got nothing because the catheter had clotted. Finally, I got it in and working, and the tubing attached, and the stitch placed. But whenever I got it in, it seemed like the rest of the world started moving in slow motion, and nothing else could get done fast enough. It was really hard not to snap at someone. But in reality, I had only myself to blame, because I was not completely prepared when I started the procedure. So now I know what I need to have ready, and I’ll just be sure it’s all there before I start.

And after making almost every mistake possible on this attempt, I’m quite certain I won’t have a problem starting a line like that ever again.

And, on another happy note, I figured out what I was doing with the sutures, and why they weren’t staying taut after I tied them. It turned out all I needed was a small adjustment, and that solved the problem.