IV catheter left in senior’s arm after trip to hospital

A Winnipeg woman is sharing her mother's experience at an urgent care centre in the hope that it doesn't happen to anyone else. 

On Monday morning, Laura Calder was notified her 92-year-old mother, Tamara Mutter, had tripped on her walker and had fallen down.

Mutter was taken by ambulance to Victoria Hospital’s urgent care.

Calder said she was told during the hospital’s assessment, they gave Mutter an IV catheter.

“Apparently she was dehydrated, so she needed fluids in her,” Calder told CTV News.

Mutter didn’t break anything from her fall and was released from the hospital.

However, on Tuesday, Calder received a concerning phone call from Mutter’s homecare nurse.

“She had called me and asked, ‘Is there a reason why the IV catheter is left in your mom’s arm?’” Calder said. “I didn’t even know that – I wasn’t aware.”

Calder said Mutter had long sleeves on when a stretcher service brought her home, which could explain why the IV went undetected.

But knowing the catheter had been stuck in Mutter’s arm was immediately concerning to Calder as her mother lives with diabetes.

“There was a lot of dried, pooled blood and there’s an incision,” Calder said. “This is why I want to bring awareness to everyone because infections can set in.”

A Winnipeg Regional Health Authority spokesperson told CTV News, “hospital leadership is aware of this occurrence. We are investigating this case from a patient safety and quality-of-care perspective to better understand what happened to determine how we can prevent this type of incident from re-occurring.”

Calder said they also found a couple of monitor stickers on Mutter’s stomach.

“I don’t know what happened from the time she woke up,” Calder said. “There was nobody else there, she didn’t realize (the stickers) were on her, and then the stretcher service took her home.”

She doesn’t believe the IV catheter or monitor stickers were left on purpose, but wants other people to be aware of what can be missed when leaving a hospital.

“I want people to know that this was an oversight, but it was a scary one because what if there were problems immediately or a few hours later?”

Calder said Mutter’s home care nurse received approval to remove the catheter, and now they are monitoring the wound to make sure it heals properly.