I'm surprised most commenters seem to fault the anesthesiologist/CRNA for not placing an NGT
(insert blame anesthesia joke here). In my experience this is the responsibility of the primary surgical team. That being said if a patient came to me who I thought needed an NGT prior to induction, I would absolutely not proceed until the surgical team had done so. I have yet to encounter a situation where the surgeons were not amenable to this after discussion.
This is fair. The surgery team should have had it replaced, pre-op. That being said, patients often arrive to pre-anesthesia holding areas with non-functional IVs, missing NGTs, and the anesthesia team has to fix these issues before proceeding. At the end of the day, we are all responsible for keeping patients safe, even if it means doing something the patients will be annoyed at us for. I often explain to patients that their safety sometimes has to override their comfort, but I will definitely try to give a little opioid medication or sedation to mitigate their pain if I need to do something that causes discomfort.
There is absolutely no reason the CRNA/Anesthesiologist couldn't have placed an NGT prior to attempting intubation. That is completely, 100% on them. Patients with SBO frequently have massive bouts of vomiting. I wouldn't dream of one of them being intubated with that high a risk of aspiration present. Ridiculous.
No reason the nurse should be liable
The CRNA and anesthesiologist should have recognized that the stomach needed to be decompressed before intubation.
They like to go after everyone to increase the odds of a big payment.
I'm surprised most commenters seem to fault the anesthesiologist/CRNA for not placing an NGT
(insert blame anesthesia joke here). In my experience this is the responsibility of the primary surgical team. That being said if a patient came to me who I thought needed an NGT prior to induction, I would absolutely not proceed until the surgical team had done so. I have yet to encounter a situation where the surgeons were not amenable to this after discussion.
Agreed, it does seem odd that the surgery team wouldn't be responsible for this.
This is fair. The surgery team should have had it replaced, pre-op. That being said, patients often arrive to pre-anesthesia holding areas with non-functional IVs, missing NGTs, and the anesthesia team has to fix these issues before proceeding. At the end of the day, we are all responsible for keeping patients safe, even if it means doing something the patients will be annoyed at us for. I often explain to patients that their safety sometimes has to override their comfort, but I will definitely try to give a little opioid medication or sedation to mitigate their pain if I need to do something that causes discomfort.
There is absolutely no reason the CRNA/Anesthesiologist couldn't have placed an NGT prior to attempting intubation. That is completely, 100% on them. Patients with SBO frequently have massive bouts of vomiting. I wouldn't dream of one of them being intubated with that high a risk of aspiration present. Ridiculous.
I cannot hold the nurses responsible - if a doctor had not asked them to place the tube.
Both the Surgeon and Anesthesiologist can, and should, have placed a NGT.