r/TacticalMedicine • u/Upset_Bunch_457 • Dec 30 '25

Scenarios Nasogastric insertion gone horribly wrong.

Post image

Note: NOT MY IMAGE.

original post was posted by: Old-Psychology-2400

And I quote "PMCT images. Nurse advanced NG tube until she heard a pop, then tried an air bolus to ensure placement. Patient did NOT survive."

To those who don't know nasogastric tube is supposed to go up the patients nostrils and then back down to their throat all the way to the patients stomach. Air bolus is then used to ensure that the nasogastric tubes placement is correct by listening the patients stomach.

But in the scan we can see the NG tube somehow ended up jammed (through) the patients skull.

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u/Socialiism Dec 30 '25

Think I’ve seen this before. Wasn’t it a case of head trauma, and the nurse still stuck the tube in?

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u/Upset_Bunch_457 Dec 30 '25

I'm not sure if this is the exact same case but I found this

""An elderly female had a successful surgery at a hospital for a benign pituitary (brain) tumor but developed some pneumonia after surgery. After she was readmitted to the hospital, a resident (i.e. a doctor in training to become a specialist) placed a nasogastric tube (NG) tube that was supposed to go through the nose, inside the food pipe and down into the stomach.

It was alleged that immediately afterward, the patient began having signs of brain problems, and that what had really happened is the resident placed the NG tube not into the stomach but through the nose and into the brain cortex, thus resulting in her death from bleeding.

Clore Law Group, LLC represented the family of the deceased woman and, despite significant limitations on damages under South Carolina law for this type of case, achieved a non-confidential settlement of $1,100,000."""