During a surgical procedure, the patient's ctco2 levels had been rising so it was decided to change out the absorber canister.When the new canister was in the cradle and placed into the upright position, a large piece of plastic from the canister flew off.The canister became jammed in a non-functional position.The team was not able to ventilate the patient and there was no ambu-bag in the room.The team finally got the equipment unjammed and put the old canister in the machine.Fortunately, the patient's oxygen saturations never dropped.The failure was discussed by the or team and the broken absorber canister was saved.During the discussion of the event, another team member reported that they had heard of several similar incidents (at least two, possibly four) of absorber canisters breaking in the anesthesia machine.However, this is the only one that was documented in an event report.The manufacture's representative was notified and will be following up with anesthesia team member.
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