It was reported that a cardiosave intra-aortic balloon pump (iabp) was used on a patient with heart failure during transfer to (b)(6).A sensation plus 50cc intra-aortic balloon (iab) catheter was inserted in the right femoral artery (raf) and connected to fiber-optic with arterial line flush connected to a catheter.The patient was transferred to icu and the iabp was plugged into ac power.The patient was then transferred from (b)(6) hospital onto a (b)(6) plane/aircraft.The ccl nurse checked the placement of the catheter in the patient's groin before departing and the iabp was functioning normally.After approximately 30-40mins into the flight, the iabp unit was attempting to autofill and the unit went into standby mode.The nurse pressed the start button to re-commence pumping.The unit auto-filled and began pumping appropriately.The iabp went into standby mode again and had to be re-started.This occurred multiple times and the nurse noticed that the helium supply was draining quite quickly.The nurse checked the patient's groin, catheter tubing, connection of catheter into pump and all extension connections.There was no leak alarm or kink catheter alert throughout this period.There was no loose connections or blood/fluid observed in the catheter tubing.The nurse noted that the helium drained quickly, over a 20 minute period and then the unit went to standby mode.The catheter was disconnected from the iabp and manually inflated/deflated for the remainder of the trip to (b)(6).When the plane arrived at the airstrip, the patient was unable to be reconnected to the (b)(6) iabp unit, as the catheter was damaged from the syringe during the manual inflations.Following the event, the patient¿s condition was reported as stable and no adverse event reported.
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