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On Why You Should Never Stand Up Your Portable Ventilator

In case you ever have a child on a ventilator, never stand up the portable one.  Always lay it down on the floor.  If you don't, it might fall over and land on the feeding line, putting weight on it and causing the feeding tube to come out.

Yes, this did happen to us last night.  Abby's Mic-Key button (her feeding tube) got yanked out with the balloon (that keeps it inside her belly) still inflated.  OUCH!  If you could hear Abby cry, I'm pretty sure that our neighbors would have heard it. I heard a pop and thought to myself, that sounded like a balloon popping.  I quickly realized what it was and set to work fixing the problem.  We got a new button and inserted it (the hole closes up really fast so you have to do it quickly!) but I didn't want to continue Abby's feed without talking to a doctor.  I called the pediatrician, who said to call the surgeon to be safe.  I called the GI at JH, who said that she couldn't give any advice because she hasn't seen her yet.  (Our first appointment is in a few weeks.)  So, I called the GI at UMMC, who gave me a few things to do to check it out.  Everything looked good, so we continued the feed and went about our merry way.

My first thought after it happened was, we are so going back to the hospital AGAIN!  Poor Abby was in a lot of pain and is now even more angry when we touch her gtube than ever!  We finally got a smile out of her a few hours later, but she was definitely hurting. 

Thank goodness this did not put us back in the hospital!

So yeah...make sure you always lay your portable ventilator on the floor.  Don't try to stand it up.  You know, just in case you ever have a ventilator.  Don't say I didn't warn you!

Comments

Heather Bauer said…
oh you should take to Kaitelyn about how many times that tube comes out and she had a few doctors who should have known better take it out still inflated. Poor Abbey...it will get better each time you learn something new! Keep up the great work.

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