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AIR EMBOLISM:
SUDDEN DEATH FROM INTRAVENOUS FLUIDS
A
7-year old farming
village
boy had died
when
intravenous
(lV) fluids
were given
in
the
infectious
diseases ward of
a
city hospital
in
China.
He
died from air embolism.
The
lV infusion was not ordinary saline
nor
glucose
but a
very special
one
-
mannitol for reducing pressure inside
his brain. Normally, even
if
lV
saline or glucose fluids run
dry,
air would usually
not
go inside
the
body because
of
the body's venous blood
pressure sustaining a good column
of
water
inside
the
lV fluid set, so that air
could
not
get
inside
the
body.
ln
this case,
mannitol, being rather viscous, was
given
under pressure. However,
when
it ran
dry,
the
pres-
sure
inside
the
bottle was higher than the venous blood pressure and air would
then go
into the
veins.
Unfortunately,
the
newly
qualified
nurse
there was
unaware
-
rather
than stopping the drip immediately
when
the drip
ran dry, she
went
instead
to
prepare for
the
next
bottle of
mannitol.
However,
when she
returned with the new
bottle,
the
boy
was dead from air embolism! When
>100 cc of
air reaches the heart, the
pumping
action
renders numerous air bubbles
in
the
blood, making
the
blood pliable instead
of
being turgid
-
pliable
blood
effectively cushions the pumping action of the
heart.
The patient dies as
if
the
heart
had
"stopped". Any
specialform of
intravenous
drip
must
be
recognized
duly
by medical professionals.
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