A Texas nurse has been charged with murder for injecting air into the IVs of patients.
The hospital had reached out to authorities after they had a concern about unexpected patient deaths. They suspected that one of their staff was involved as all the cases had happened during his night shift.
The investigation found that the nurse entered the patient’s rooms and performed a procedure with the patient’s IVs, and the patients then suffered serious harm or death. The nurse was observed on a video camera coming out of the involved patient’s rooms.
It is suspected that the nurse injected air into the patient’s IVs. This causes an air embolism, and can result in an immediate stroke or cardiac arrest.
An air embolism occurs when one or more air bubbles enter a vein or artery.
Air embolisms are rare. Modern day IV tubing protects patients from having this occur, but if an IV line is tampered with it can still occur.
Healthfacts.blog 