Question

Randy is a nursing student. he has been asked to intravenously inject his patient with 10ml of an isotonic preparation. mistakenly, he injects his patient with 10ml of pure water. what is likely to happen to the red blood cells near the site of injection

Answer 1

Injecting water with dilute the plasma content in that area. It can also cause red blood cell more water than what their membranes can contain, causing them to burst. However, a small amount of water can't do any harm. Only a large amount of water can actually cause harm because water kills the red blood cell that carries oxygen through the body.

Answer 2

The injection of the water would result in the dilution of the plasma. The dilution of the blood plasma would make it hypotonic as compared to the red blood cells present in the plasma.

In the hypotonic plasma, the red blood blood cell would cell. The red blood cell would allow the water molecules to come inside and as a result of inflow of the water, the cell will swell and probably burst. So, the red blood cells at the site of injection will swell and burst due to the injection of water.