Hundreds of deaths and serious injuries can be attributed to
mix-ups with similar-looking types of medical tubing. Experts
and standards groups have long advocated that tubes for
different purposes be made so that they are incompatible with
each other. However, this has been delayed by resistance from
the medical-device industry, as well as an FDA approval process
that can discourage safety-related changes. The New York Times
reports: “Tubes intended to inflate blood-pressure cuffs have
been connected to intravenous lines, leading to deadly air
embolisms. Intravenous fluids have been connected to tubes
intended to deliver oxygen, leading to suffocation. And in 2006
Julie Thao, a nurse ... mistakenly put a spinal anesthetic into
a vein, killing 16-year-old Jasmine Gant, who was giving birth.”