An incredible sequence of events — including a fire alarm, a medication error, and a patient’s weakened medical state — resulted in a tragic death in a hospital recently. The 65-year-old patient was in a hospital receiving treatment after she had brain surgery. She was supposed to receive an anti-seizure medication, which she did.
The only problem was that the anti-seizure was supposed to be mixed with an anti-anxiety substance as well. When the IV bag that contained this supposed mixture was being put together, the pharmacist accidentally combined the anti-seizure medication with a paralyzing agent instead. Medical professionals at the hospital had no way of knowing this error had occurred as the IV bag had all the necessary markings on it to make it seem as though it had the anti-anxiety medication in it.
Soon after the medication was given to the patient, a fire alarm went off in the hospital. This led to a delay in supervising and monitoring the patient and, once doctors and nurses checked on the patient, her medical condition had deteriorated. She suffered cardiac arrest and was put on life support, but two days later she was taken off and passed away.
Though officials are calling this simply “human error” and while that may be accurate, the thing about human error in the medical field is that it can lead to fatal circumstances — just like this. Mistakes are made, but those who are victimized by those mistakes (or their loved ones) have every right to seek justice in the form of a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Source: KTVZ, “Wrong drug put in IV bag led to fatal Bend hospital error,” Wanda Moore, Dec. 8, 2015
