New York Times: Medical Tube Mix-ups Are Killing Patients

Did you know that 16 percent of hospitals in the United States have reported serious tube mix-ups that have led to permanent injury and death? Or that this number is probably lower than the actual statistics, because patients, doctors, and hospitals rarely report the often-fatal mistake?

Tube mix-up medical errors occur when one type of tube, such as a feeding tube, is mixed up with another type of tube, such as an intravenous tube. Inserting a feeding tube into a vein can quickly become deadly, while inserting an intravenous tube into the stomach can mean that patients don’t get the medicine that they need in the way that they need it. It seems like a huge, easily preventable error, but the FDA and others have been slow to act.

The simple solution to stopping tube mix-up medical malpractice incidents is to make different tubes incompatible – a tube that dispenses air or gas would be incompatible with a tube that dispenses food or fluids. Since nurses often are overworked, overwhelmed, and dealing with dozens of patients a day, mistakes will continue to happen until medical manufacturers and the government work together to develop a safer system of tubes. Unfortunately, studies are slogging along, while committees struggle to determine exactly how they should move forward with the best solution. A fix probably won’t come until 2014.

Until then, fatal mistakes will continue to take place in hospitals across the country. In one recent case, a 16-year-old girl was killed during labor when her epidural bag was mixed up with her IV fluids, killing her with spinal anesthetic.