Published August 31, 2021 (revised December 31, 2024)
When you visit someone in the hospital, you may be amazed to see how many tubes are connected to them. Sometimes one of these tubes may become disconnected. But don't try to be helpful and reattach the tube. You could connect it to the wrong thing and cause serious harm.
Many tubes used in the hospital can be connected to each other, even though they don't belong together. A term used for this is "tubing misconnection." For example, several people have died after tubing from a blood pressure machine or an oxygen mask was mistakenly connected to intravenous (IV) tubing (which supplies fluid and medicine into the vein). The wrong connection allowed air to enter the vein. These mistakes are easy to make.
Here's what you can do: If a tube or drain attached you the patient becomes disconnected, do not try to reconnect it yourself. Call for a nurse to reconnect the tube or drain.
