during dialysis, staff member said I had "air in line",

[celticdutchess78]

during last hour of dialysis, staff member glanced at my machine and said to my tech there was "air in the line"..multiple staff members arrived quickly and separated me from the lines.  They seemed to be doing something with syringes etc to the lines. I asked if I did something wrong and my tech said ,"no I did". They said they would have to put up a whole new set up,one nurse said, "well, shes lost some blood ". I asked if it would prolong my time and was told yes but I could sign out. I just wanted out of there to elected to "sign out". On the paper I signed,the space for "reason' I was told to leave blank. I asked if there was anything I needed to watch for and was told "no".
I'm scared to go back there.

[Simon Dog]

A little air won't kill you (but is not good either), and the system is pretty good at detecting air and shutting down.

Any blood loss in excess of 50ML (a full setup is about 400ML) is a "reportable incident" which means someone needs to fill out a form.  Happens once in a while, won't kill you.

Chances are the "somting" was an attempt to save the setup by sucking the blood with air bubbles out of the line.

[Michael Murphy]

The system stops if it detects air, that being said if you are on the transplant list some centers hold AMA  (Against Medical Advice) requests against you.

[iolaire]

There is some sort of port which is connected to the line via a single cable that they use to detect air in the line via a transducer.  That whole system can fail, they will do things like try to suck the blood out of the cable, or pump in some air to get the blood out of the cable then try to restart it.  Sometime they replace the transducer which looks to be a plastic connector.  I believe that usually the air in the line is a center generated problem, either they didn't connect the transducer or other places with connectors well, or whatever is behind the transducer is failing.

[Simon Dog]

Close.   The transducers are used to measure venous and arterial pressure.   The tubes you see that are about half full of blood are watched by an optical sensor that looks for air in the blood.

The transducer protector is supposed to be replaced if blood goes up the little line and touches the membrane.  The actual transducer is in the machine.   The doohickie that is replaced is the transducer protector that keeps patient blood out of the machine.

[iolaire]

Close.   The transducers are used to measure venous and arterial pressure.   The tubes you see that are about half full of blood are watched by an optical sensor that looks for air in the blood.

Isn't the line with the blood also connected to the transducer?  Thanks for the explanation.

[Simon Dog]

Isn't the line with the blood also connected to the transducer?  Thanks for the explanation.

A thin line from each of the two blood chambers connects to a transducer.  Unless that blood chamber overflows, there is no blood in that section of line.

[Rerun]

It just happened to me too.  The tech didn't get the arterial line screwed on tight and it sucked air.  It is scary.  They don't want to talk about it.  I got about 500 in saline trying to get rid of the air.  They saved my lines.  It is a miracle I haven't been killed.

[celticdutchess78]

thanks for reply...it bothered me no one gave me any explanation or reassurance...made me nervous to be told to leave the "reason " blank for my leaving. sorry to hear that may be held against me at any transplant hearing.

[Rerun]

Yeah, that is BS about leaving the "reason" blank.  But, when your life is in there hands you hesitate to cross them. 

 

[Simon Dog]

Yeah, that is BS about leaving the "reason" blank.  But, when your life is in there hands you hesitate to cross them. 

 

They are not going to kill you or deny treatment if you write in a reason.  All AMAs become part of your record.  If the reason is something the clinic did, it is to you advantage to write that down.

[iolaire]

it bothered me no one gave me any explanation or reassurance...

Its to your advantage to ask them questions and get the explanation that you need.  Usually they should be fairly responsive to telling you what the problem was and what it means once they are done with the immediate emergency. I think a lot of times they are used to working with people who don't pay attention or don't care but if you ask they are happy to explain things.  That should also have a side effect of them knowing you are watching over them, and thus they might be extra careful or be more likely to accept your requests regarding managing your treatment.

[kitkatz]

Always write in a reason on those forms whether they do it or not.