Tried to donate blood, the nurse pushed the needle through the vein and bled out internally into my arm
Friday, 21 Mar 2025
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Does it hurt or does it just look like it hurts?
Luckily that is all internal bleeding, which is where the blood is supposed to be.
Your arm looks like mine did after a nasty car accident. It might get darker. This was about day 3.
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As a former Paramedic of a couple very well known plasma companies; this happens relatively frequently. Also, it wasn’t a nurse. It was a phlebotomist who may or may not have had any type of formal training other than on the job.
OP, if they didn’t document the hematoma, please go back in and show them this so they can do the appropriate documentation for a DAE (Donor Adverse Event). That way it’s official and they have it on record that you had this done. The center doctor will review it, also.
Also, hematomas like this very, very rarely cause any kind of problems during or after the healing process. There may be some tenderness but overall it looks a LOT worse than it actually is.
That happened to me in high school once. Gnarly bruise, but it goes away in a few days.
Blown vein, looks way worse than it is, I’ve had a few of them when the needles went too far through my dialysis fistula.
Couple of days it’ll be like nothing ever happened.
I have naughty veins that roll away. They always have to stick me at least three times. Luckily, it is a rule that they have to get another person after the third time. Because some are really bad at it!!
So I’m a nurse, we poke through veins all the time trying to get IVs in. It NEVER looks like that. Really. I do them every day. Did she fuck with an artery?
I’m very sorry
I hope your arm is fine and you recover well.
That said, NGL this looks fuckin’ sick bro.
Unless you’re a hemophiliac, it looks like they got into an artery.
I feel “bled out” is a bit dramatic. Yes, it sucks, but did you bleed out?
This looks a lot like string slap, from shooting a bow.
Corpsman got me like this once…fucking brutal…dude was digging in my arm like there was treasure in there….
Dear fucking lord. That looks painful.
Oh good another thing I need to be anxious about when getting blood drawn
Juicy
That’s wild.
I hope you still got the cookies and orange juice after.
Should post this on med lab professionals…
Metal
Thats a nice looking hematoma
No good deed goes unpunished.
technically it didn’t suck at all.
This is one of my worst fears
Jesus Murphy! She really blew your vein.
I’ve had the vein pierced, but the bruise wasn’t anything LIKE that big! Holy shit…
Pretty sure that not how veins work. But arteries…
We have a doctor at my local health centre that always does this, though not always this bad thankfully, we call him dan dan the vampire man
This is what pisses me off about donating blood.
Now YOURE stuck with the bill on Dr visits, any care you receive and on top of that the chance of nerve damage for a few months.
All for a $10 gift card.
why do we have to be full of blood it’s gross
Veins get blown all the time, believe it or not it’s tricky putting a needle into a little tube underneath skin.
However, this is waaaaaaay worse than anything I’ve ever seen. Normally it’s just a lump under your skin that gets quickly absorbed and may leave a small bruise. Sorry that happened to you.
Omg…I’ve done phlebotomy and certified. Not even in the early days of practicing with other students did this ever happen. I would report this to the facility and fill out a report. For future reference to everyone…if the phlebotomist Moses 3 times, they are suppose to ask for help and you absolutely have the right to request one. Please get this checked out
As someone who gets a 6 hour infusion for low platelets every month:
1) That’s not “hitting a vein” – I find it hard to believe it’s even from hitting an artery. It looks more like trauma.
2) If this is somehow real, you should stay in touch with your doctor. That much bleeding is dangerous, and you could throw clots.
Damaging veins is a thing that happens all the time. People don’t realize how easy it is to screw them up, and how many newbies get to “practice” on you. Serious nerve damage can also happen when you poke through the vein.
In America, if a nurse can’t find a vein twice, you legally get to ask for someone else to take over. And you get a break, because it’s usually stressful and painful when it goes wrong.
I’ve had two veins badly damaged by new (or incompetent) nurses. But when I let present nurses know about the trouble spots, and that they can’t harvest from those areas due to damage and blow-outs, they bring in their big-gun nurses to find a good vein. And they take their time with warm compresses, casual conversation, and heated chairs. It sucks, because my messed-up veins were the easy, sweet spots–which is why they were ravaged by novices in the first place.
Know the signs of poking through the vein and hitting nerves: “stars” in your arm into your thumb, and extreme pain, far more than a normal IV placement.
Ain’t that a lawsuit
Jfc man. That sucks. Had one similar(though not that bad) in the military once. Shit was bruised for a month.
This happened to me while donating ~12 years ago, it’ll clear up in a week or so
I had this happen to me in 2019. No need to worry; it will pass. Just don’t go back there again.
does it hurt tho?
That didn’t go as expected.
No good deed goes unpunished….
That sucks, but thank you so much for donating blood.
Legend !!
I’ve had this happen before too but it never looked this bad