Many nurses don't know what kind of pump they are using. Unfortunately, many have never received adequate training. The nurse resigned her license but was never disciplined. The Tribune reported on Brenia's death in its series in September. Through computer analysis of millions of state and federal records, the Tribune was able to track deaths and injuries previously unknown to the accreditation panel or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which licenses infusion pumps.
Most new pumps incorporate free-flow protections.
Pa. Nurses in six Chicago-area hospitals said they commonly are required to administer medications through pumps capable of free flow. The machines are not marked. There's no way to tell one that has the built-in protections from a machine that does not. University medical center officials have declined to discuss whether they continue to use infusion pumps capable of free flow. That advice has been widely ignored, state and federal health care records show.