I was on general surgery and was eager to do hands-on stuff when possible. The opportunity came to put in an NG for a patient with a query bowel obstruction. I had done two before, so I had gotten falsely cocky. The patient’s nurse had just gone on a break but I asked another nurse for help and went to it. The NG insertion went smoothly, but unfortunately, when I aspirated, nothing came up. Luckily the nurse realized the syringe I was trying to aspirate with still had a lid on it, whoops. We hooked it up to suction and I walked away. But that’s not all folks! Little did I realize she had just ingested all the contrast for the CT she was about to get, and I unintentionally suctioned almost all of it back up. The CT wasn’t the most convincing due to the lack of contrast. My residents were a little frustrated by ultimately understood and just mocked me for it a little. My bad!

– CC4