6 Comments

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.

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Agreed, it does seem odd that the surgery team wouldn't be responsible for this.

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No reason the nurse should be liable

The CRNA and anesthesiologist should have recognized that the stomach needed to be decompressed before intubation.

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They like to go after everyone to increase the odds of a big payment.

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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.

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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.

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