An intravenous catheter placement device having a hollow body and a nose on one end of the hollow body. A needle hub fits within the nose and contains a needle embedded therein. A catheter is free to slide along the needle and substantially covers the shaft of the needle. Winged beams on the needle hub include catches and release tabs that cooperate with slots in the nose to retain the needle hub in the nose. A magnified transparent verification cavity in the needle hub provides for viewing blood flash in the cavity to verify that the intravenous catheter is inserted into the correct location. An energy storage device in contact with the needle hub releasably retains the needle hub to prevent premature projection of the needle hub into the hollow body. Upon insertion of the intravenous catheter and introducer needle into a patient, depressing the release tabs triggers the needle hub and blunts the needle within the catheter and projects the needle hub and embedded needle into the hollow body.