chest tube question

[pedsrusscott at cs.com]

Greetings - One more quick question - outside of the ER/ICU with lots of resources immediately available, what would you do in the hallway or ambulance with a patient who has a chest tube & the tubing becomes disconnected - still in the chest, but the connection tubing is disconnected? - the books say to put the tubing "under water or a bottle of saline" to simulate a water seal, but I've honestly never seen that done -? options suggested have been to do the do the water seal trick or just to "wipe it off with an alcohol pad & put it back together until a new chest drain can be set up" - any input welcomed & appreciated!
?

thanx!

Scott DeBoer RN,MSN

UCAN Flight RN

Peds-R-Us Medical Education

www.peds-r-us.com________________________________________________________________________
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