My husband went in to have blood drawn today at the hospital outpatient clinic. When he told the tech to drawn blood from his hand, she refused!! After a discussion in which she claimed expertise and experience in the hospital's dialysis unit, my husband called me to confirm why he should not let her take it from his arm. I explained again that since he has blood drawn frequently he should not have the needle sticks in his arms which could cause scarring in the veins and could make using them for dialysis difficult or impossible. He told me later that the tech was very irritated, threatened to call his doctor, (After my husband told her, "Go ahead." she left to room briefly to call the Neph, but was not gone long enough to have done so.) and insisted that "just drawing blood is not a problem", then she countered with, "It's going to hurt more." When he finally told her, "It's my hand or nothing. Either draw it or I'm leaving." she reluctantly complied. I called the hospital. After being on hold, transferred a few times, and speaking with the director of the lab, I finally spoke w/ the person in charge of treatment guidelines and policies compliance. According to her, the hospital policy is to use the arm veins with the only restriction being to avoid any A/V access area. She said if my husband wanted his hand used the Neph would need to put that in the draw order. When I asked her why they didn't follow the guidelines recommended by the NKF, she said my doctor would have to put that question in writing. When I asked for the the person's name to whom the letter should be addressed she reluctantly gave it to me. Is anyone surprised that I'm not going to ask anyone to write, and that I'm going to do it myself? Despite being angry and frustrated I was very polite and professional, and made a great effort to be non-irritating and non-confrontational. My first letter will be in that same tone. I'll post when I get an answer as to why they aren't following the NKF 2000 guidelines.I'm continually shocked by the callous disregard for the critical importance of protecting vascular access. How can they not realize that dialysis, which is a life or death choice, must have a useable access site and the possibilities are not unlimited?
You did not quite get what I said Amber. My veins have calcified in both lower legs so NO blood can be got from both feet. The fistula I had put in, in the 70's was a big operation for a small ten year old. They took a vein out of my leg. Which left a scar from my groin to my knee. The vein was put in my left arm. So that fistula messed up the veins in that arm. The Consultant Renal vascular Surgeon, used my fistula to get blood. After 34years of blood taking, you will find out what happens to your veins. In the 70's, 80's they did not used to bother which arm to use. It was the easiest to get blood from. They only did not use the fistula arm in the 90's. But by that time, for me, it was to late. Had every test done now to see it another fistula or a graph can be done to form another fistula. I have seen the best surgeons in England. I have been told my veins are to weak. All I can use is a two inch stretch of a 1980 fistula. But all I use now are the lines in my neck. The two lines I have in now, have lasted since October 2003.Kevno
I Hate Dialysis Message Board
I Hate Dialysis Message Board
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