Incident report filed on me after delayed cryo transfusion. I’m terrified.

(english not my first language so i seeked some assistance translating)

I’m a relatively new med-surg nurse (about a year in), and I’m honestly feeling sick over what happened during my last shift. I’m on shift rn and can’t focus… I feel so terrible and incompetent.

We admitted a patient around 11:35 PM who had orders for PRBCs, platelets, and cryoprecipitate. She was a CCU transfer, transferred that pt with critical labs that time. I wasn’t very familiar with cryo since I haven’t transfused it before, so I asked my charge/head nurse for guidance. He told me to give the blood first, then the platelets, so that’s what I did.

What I didn’t know was that the cryo was supposed to be transfused within a certain timeframe after it was ordered. I also didn’t realize cryo is typically only one bag and infuses pretty quickly. I had assumed it would come after the other blood products since that’s what I was told.

By the time we got to it, the cryo had expired and couldn’t be used. I was later told the patient was charged for the product because it expired, and an incident report was written involving me.

I feel awful because I genuinely didn’t know, and I should have asked more questions. At the same time, that shift was incredibly busy. I had four telemetry patients, one on a diltiazem drip with heart rates constantly going up and down, another with uncontrolled pain, and multiple blood products to manage. It felt like I was drowning.

I’m not trying to avoid responsibility… I know I have things to learn, but I’m terrified about the incident report. Has anyone else had something similar happen? What usually comes of these situations? Am I likely to get into serious trouble over this?

I’m definitely going to learn more about cryoprecipitate transfusions after this because I don’t ever want to make this mistake again.