WARNING: Some of the images included in this article are graphic and may be disturbing to some.
A long-time registered nurse and University of Alberta professor says intravenous (IV) complications happen in about 10 per cent of cases and can happen quickly.
“Even the simple technology can go wrong. Ten per cent of problems with IVs, that’s quite a high rate of problems,” Donna Wilson said on Tuesday. “Part of that is because we use intravenous so often.”
IV lines are used to administer drugs to patients while in hospital. Wilson explained that children and older patients typically have small veins, which make it more difficult to insert an IV.
“Children and older people are notoriously difficult to get an intravenous in.”
Wilson said the most common type of complication is an infection. She said the second-most common complication is where there is leakage of fluid and medication into the tissue around where the IV is inserted.
“Sometimes it’s not that the needle has completely come out of the vein,” Wilson explained. “It’s that the hole in the vein is a little bit large and fluid will leak back into the tissue.
“If it’s just a bit of water, that’s not a big deal but typically, you’ve got an antibiotic, you’ve got a painkiller, you may have some chemicals… and that’s very irritating for the tissues underneath the skin.”
READ MORE: Edmonton toddler ‘doing well’ after serious IV complication at Stollery Children’s Hospital
Wilson believes that a leakage is likely what occurred in the case of Emmy Gunther. An IV complication at the Stollery Children’s Hospital left her hand badly injured.
“It’s quite possible that this child developed an allergy to the medication because it has been used for three or four days,” Wilson said.
“So when it leaked out, it really caused a major flareup.”
Wilson said the leak can happen quickly.
“It’s very possible that we’re looking at maybe 20 minutes of where there was a little bit of leak-back. It could be that the child bent her hand so the fluid couldn’t go through.”
Emmy had surgery on Jan. 16 to repair a hole in her heart. Her mother, Jalena Gunther, said on Friday evening, staff at the Stollery hooked up an IV and started giving her daughter morphine.
When the day nurse came in Saturday morning, she checked Emmy’s hand and immediately removed the IV, Gunther said.
On Tuesday, Gunther said her daughter’s hand is improving. Emmy has begun to wiggle her fingers.