10 hospitalized from Oklahoma facility after flu shot mix-up

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

WOW, talk about a major screw up!

Amazing dumb mistake made.

10 hospitalized from Oklahoma facility after flu shot mix-up

BARTLESVILLE, Okla. (AP) — Ten people at an Oklahoma care facility for people with intellectual disabilities were hospitalized after they were apparently accidentally injected with what's believed to be insulin rather than flu shots, authorities said.

Emergency responders were called Wednesday afternoon to the Jacquelyn House in Bartlesville, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) north of Tulsa, on a report of an unresponsive person and found "multiple unresponsive people," Bartlesville Police Chief Tracy Roles said.

Good god... they are very lucky no one died!

What knuckleheads..

Pravdaseeker

That is a HUGE error on the part of the pharmacist. In retail pharmacy setting we have individual shots from the manufacturer, so this type of thing is almost impossible. For place like nursing homes or hospitals they have 10 ml vials of flu vaccine for multiple doses (0.5ml) from the same bottle.

just guessing here, but what could have happened is the pharm tech or intern drew up the doses in syringes and mistakenly grabbed an insulin vial instead of the flu vaccine, and the pharmacist gave them, unfortunately without checking...........inexcusable

If the dose was given at 0.5 ml, and the insulin was a short acting at 100 U/ml, then the dose would have been 50 units. That would be more than enough to force non diabetic patients into severe hypoglycemia, and could end up being quite serious. Glad no one died, they are indeed very lucky.

a reply to: annoyedpharmacist

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Thanks for the response, figured someone here from medical industry could SPLAIN it better!

The article kinda down plays them being bloody "unconscious".. in some sort of diabetic induced coma thing...

That's what I figured.. anytime you got people dropping like flies around you, and they are older folks, or with other "challenges".... even some staff went down....Holy smokes.

One goes down.... they called an ambulance.... then in intervals roughly equal to space between injections.... down they go.. one after the other!

Imagine being the person responsible for helping, and/or activating emergency response!??

Can anyone say stressful to the MAX?

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: pravdaseeker

Strange incident.

In most places insulin is carefully stored and requires special protocol for administration, thanks to a major screw up with the Dennis Quaid twins, years back

I see no reason why they would store vaccines with insulin, but even if they did, I don't know how any pharmacist or nurse could mistake one for the other. Even if he was not used to administering injections, drawing up sixteen syringes of medication from multiple vials, you would know that something is just not right. Unless he was not the one that actually drew up the medications and trusted what was prepared for him,

Which is a huge no no. In all the years of working in the medical profession, I have never administered a medication that I did not draw up myself or witness it being drawn up.

The basic rule that almost all medical professions go by when it comes to administration of medications, is the “8 rights of medication administration” — right patient, right dose, right medication, right route, right time, right reason, right response and right documentation. This is drilled into your head before you ever think about entering the clinical setting.

Vaccines:
duckduckgo.com...

Insulin:
duckduckgo.com...

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Wow, another fantastic response!!! Thank you.

Now that I keep reading about strict protocols in place, which honestly I figured there MUST be for that kind of medical stuff...; and since some folks here are saying no way this should happen...

Now, hate to say it, but I wonder if there is something sinister deeper in this news story?

As in, "Did someone do it on purpose" sort of angle???

Everybody seems to be losing their minds lately anyhow... maybe somebody decided to go "Hitler" on intellectually challenged people?

Pravdaseeker

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn

It has been a million years since I was charge nurse of a geriatric facility and wanted to say you are Spot on, I would add double check and redouble check.

I am guessing there was one person responsible for administering the flu vaccine and pulled a insulin vial instead of the influenza vial. The vials are the same size, which I guess could be confused by someone not paying attention to what they are doing.

The insulin vial would have the patients name and dosage requirements which should have stood out as vastly different from the multi dose influenza vial that would be used for several different patients.

Someone's head is going to be on the chopping block- as it should be.

a reply to: NightSkyeB4Dawn


The flu vaccine and insulin are both refrigerated, so while maybe on different shelves, they are sometimes stored in the same place. In my store our fridge is very small, so the insulin, flu shots, and certain eye drops are all stored in the same place.

As for injecting something you dont draw up yourself, I agree totally that it is horrible practice.......but I only speculated because I have no idea how a pharmacist would grab a bottle of insulin and give flu shots with the vial MULTIPLE times.

When I was interning a while back, my preceptor had me draw up flu shots for him when we were busy, however, he always made me bring the bottle I took the dose out of to him so he could double check. Not to mention, you need to document lot #, exp date of every single shot..........this was a MAJOR screw up.

a reply to: annoyedpharmacist

If storage space is limited and forces the sharing of that space with other medications, as you said, the procedure for administering those meds requires a lot of checking and documentation, this would make the need for caution to be even more rigid.

If the mistake was made on the side of the pharmacist and not the manufacturer, a whole lot went wrong, which makes it so hard for me to believe that this "accident" occurred the way it is being reported.

They can blame this on the person who administered it or the pharmacist all they want. But if those people were not getting the flu shot it would never have happened. The incident should still be charged against the flu shot problem data, but that will probably never happen.

Any time you get a shot you can have side effects, with the delivery system. Those odds are not that high, maybe one or two percent, but they are still there. Anything ranging from the shot interacting with a vein to it pushing an infection inward. When ever you get even a minor operation you take risks more than only the operation data, there is the anesthesia or even infections after the fact. It all looks good on paper till you look at all the risks.