The improper use of physical restraints can cause injuries of varying severity, which can sometimes be fatal. • A review of 26 deaths while the individual was physically revealed 22 deaths were caused solely by physical restraint; all of them occurred in patients under nursing care who were not continuously observed. • The immediate cause of death was strangulation (11 cases), chest compression (8 cases), or dangling in the head-down position (3 cases). • In 19 of these 22 patients, the restraints were incorrectly fastened, including two cases in which improvised non-standard restraints were used. • One nursing-home patient died because of an abdominal restraint even though it had been correctly applied: She was mobile enough to slip through the restraint till it compressed her neck, and then unable to extricate herself from it, so that she died of strangulation.
Restraints should only be used when a person's behavior is MORE dangerous than the danger of using restraints. | ||