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'Wrong' woman given abortion after nurse mixed up patients

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posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 10:08 AM
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THIS REMINDS ME of something that happened to me and my ex girldriend back in the 90s i had took her to the hospital with a condition called plactia previa while she was 6 monts pregnant after spending 24 hours in ob observation room yhey gave her a private room around 8 am a lady came into her room carrying a tray with a syringe on it she asked where was my girlfriends iv we told her it was taken out so she went to get another iv kit. when she came back i asked her why she was putting another iv in my girlfriend if they had already taken her old one out. she replied because i have to give her her meds before her hystorectomy. i said to her who is your patient on your chart . it wasn't my girlfriend i told her to get out that she had the wrong room and i contacted the nursing station and informed yhem what had transpired.
yes this is totally this nurses fault and i don't know about in england but nurses make good money in my area around 18 dollars an hour so you expect them to do a good job.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 10:21 AM
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Originally posted by xeroxed88

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
If you're driving a car wrecklessly or carelessly, strike someone, and they die you are charged with manslaughter and frequently do jail time. The nurse just did the same thing only with a murder pill rather than a car ...negligent homicide or manslaughter ... her negligence and lack of concern just directly caused a human being to die.


While I do agree with what you are saying, if that happened then it would be only fair if EVERY doctor/nurse/parent that has carried out/agreed to abortion to stand trial for manslaughter.


[edit on 19/7/08 by xeroxed88]


You’re wrong xeroxed. It is not the same as a legal consented abortion. The woman did not consent to the abortion and therefore it was not legal. For example in a country where euthanasia is legal, murder is not. See the difference now?



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 10:30 AM
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Originally posted by proteus33
THIS REMINDS ME of something that happened to me and my ex girldriend back in the 90s i had took her to the hospital ... while she was 6 monts pregnant ... a lady came into her room carrying a tray with a syringe on it ... i asked her why she was putting another iv in my girlfriend if they had already taken her old one out. she replied because i have to give her her meds before her hystorectomy. i said to her who is your patient on your chart . it wasn't my girlfriend i told her to get out that she had the wrong room and i contacted the nursing station and informed yhem what had transpired.
yes this is totally this nurses fault and i don't know about in england but nurses make good money in my area around 18 dollars an hour so you expect them to do a good job.


And the problem you find is that 'near misses' like that don't even lead to a ‘slap on the wrist.’ The nurse just forgets about and carries on until she gets caught. That nurse should be at least suspended without pay and reprimanded but they never do and the medical staff close ranks if you complain.

I disagree with your second point about pay. While nurses are not receiving great pay for their work at times, private paid (better paid nurses) still make mistakes. And no one forces them to be nurses, they new the pay level before they got into it. Low pay is not an excuse for risking people's lives. Firefighters get low pay for the work they do but do they let people die because they can't be bothered? No.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 11:20 AM
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Originally posted by xeroxed88

Originally posted by burdman30ott6
If you're driving a car wrecklessly or carelessly, strike someone, and they die you are charged with manslaughter and frequently do jail time. The nurse just did the same thing only with a murder pill rather than a car. She should be tried for negligent homicide or manslaughter, and given a pridon dentence as her negligence and lack of concern just directly caused a human being to die.


While I do agree with what you are saying, if that happened then it would be only fair if EVERY doctor/nurse/parent that has carried out/agreed to abortion to stand trial for manslaughter.

It's like if a prisoner is executed for murder, shouldn't the person doing the execution be sentenced to death too?

[edit on 19/7/08 by xeroxed88]


This case is not the same as a woman that willing seeks out an abortion. Woman A was not planning on terminating her pregnancy, therefore the nurses actions could be considered manslaughter.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 12:14 PM
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reply to post by UFOpsychiczebra
 


I'm truly sorry for what happened to you and your girlfriend but I do wish you knew what you were talking about. When those sort of "near misses" occur (with frightening frequency), nurses ARE written up, meetings are held by various departments, sometimes outside agencies are brought in to assess the problems. Action IS taken each and every time. Usually the nurse writes herself up if for no other reason than to get the beaurocratic ball rolling in order to draw attention to the problems we face and how it might affect the facility's bottom line if changes aren't made.

Those sort of write ups don't go into your personnel file but go to a committee who deals with caregiving errors to determine if policies or procedures need to be re-evaluated or changed. Most nurses make copies so that if some god-awful thing like that happens they've got the documentation to show that the higher ups knew about the potential for such errors.

They are not punitive but self-correcting write-ups designed to prevent errors like the one mentioned from ever occuring. The problem is that the higher ups KNOW what the problem is and CAN'T always correct it. The problem is a nation wide nursing shortage. We beg for more help but there are not enough nurses to go around. They can't hire what doesn't exist. There are fewer people going to nursing school because who in their right mind wants to manage that kind of work load, live in a daily routine of life and death type stress for half the amount of money that can be made without a college education or the threat of prison if you make a mistake?

As I said before, we police our own.

We generally don't tell the families/patients what goes on behind the scenes to keep them safe.

Another poster was correct in saying you can't fix stupid. We used to have tubes of nitroglycerine paste (to relieve chest pain) at the patients bedside. It clearly said "nitroglycerine" in big letters on the tube. We left it at the patients bedsides so that they could self-medicate as needed. (You don't want to have to wait for a nurse to finish getting someone into bed before coming to deal with your chest pain). One of the patients' visitors thought it was a tube of hand lotion, squirted out a large dose and rubbed it into her hands causing her blood pressure to drop dangerously low and she passed out on the floor. Within 8 hours every tube of nitroglycerin in the facility had been removed from every bedside AND med room to be replaced by individual packets that only contained one dose. This "near miss" story spread across every facility in the nation and now all facilities carry ONLY individual packets of nitroglycerine. None are at the bedside. The down side to this story is that because of the stupidity of one visitor, every patient in every hospital across the nation must now put on their call light and wait for a nurse when they are having chest pain. Great fix, eh? Maybe if we outlaw the abortion pills these kind of mistakes can be avoided? Be assured that policy and procedure changes will occur because of this incident. Putting another nurse in prison will not help the sitution.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 12:33 PM
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reply to post by whitewave
 


I am not suprised by what I am reading. In healthcare organisation, the credit goes to the doctors while the nurses and other staffs are treated as not so significant. This rank based system is very sad.

In the above scenario, I guess she just has to be a sacrifical lamb while a new guy comes in.

Personally I have witnessed physioTx being quite "freely used". Patients are referred for very vague diagnosis like knee pain, groin strain (I was chuckling when I read HIS memo)
as well as common experienced tendinitis.

There are two solutions
1) Quit your nurse job
2) Upgrade to a doctor (top of the chain)
3) Work in a private clinic/hospital where there are fewer patients and maybe politics.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 12:39 PM
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I always ask what I am being given . I have many severe drug allergies, and I can not even count the amount of times doctors come in with a syringe of demerol, or morphine, even though I am wearing an allergy band and it is in my chart.

Once at mayo clinic, I had a doctor who did not believe me, that I was so allergic to all these medications, I was asleep and the nurse came in a gave me morphine anyway. The doctor told her to give it to me. Needless to say I woke up pretty quick not able to breath and hives all over my body. So what do they do? Give me a vein injection of benydryl. I Told her no, I can only take it by mouth, as I have a vein reaction to it and will get more hives. The damn doctor comes in, and says you have to have it now. They give it to me, and sure enough hives up that arm. I was so mad. I should have sued them.
I really should have.

After this incident, I went to an allergist, had testing done to prove my allergies, and have a paper I carry from them stating my allergies, so these doctors who think I am making up all these allergies can kiss my butt.

I really am allergic to all antibiotics and opiods. Too many people have thought I was just having side effects, and calling it allergy. I do know the difference. It's sad I had to spend 500 of my own money for the tests , so they would not endanger me again.

[edit on 19-7-2008 by amatrine]



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 01:24 PM
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What I don't get is why she took the pill if she was only in for an initial consultation!

Does an "initial consultation" involve being put into a hospital gown and drugged up to the point that you can't make rational descisions?

That's like going in for consultation about the costs/risks associated with Lasik eye surgery, the doctor tells you to lay down and then starts lining up the laser over your eye and not going "whoa, stop!" This lady seems just as guilty as the nurse to me.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 01:47 PM
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Maybe if women would close their legs and STOP getting knocked up all the time and then using the abortion clinics as a means to skip their irresponsibility of becoming a parent...we wouldn't have to worry about this.

But thats right..we as a society are that stupid that we say..hey its ok for a girl to go have sex, get pregnant as much as she wants and kill/murder the baby SHE helped create. This baby would of ruined her chance to party and hang out with her other loser friends...so just go to the clinic..and kill/murder it..then you can go back to having more sex and get YOUR life back.....Or the best one...it was a mistake and she has a great career and great life going..and she can't afford to have a baby right now...she can have irresponsible sex...but man she has to kill/murder it or her life is ruined!!!

This nurse made a mistake..just like the chick who got knocked up did....I find it fitting in this society that you guys want the NURSE to pay, go to jail, be sued..yet mom who is the real criminal in my eyes...gets to now make money off of wanting to KILL her baby. And guess what...she went in there with the thought of aborting the child already...so now she has no baby to support and because of a human mistake (which we all make, including this loser mom) now she will make BIG BUCKS and live happily ever after...WITHOUT the child her loser behind helped create!!!...I can see her smiling now...I AM RICH, AND I HAVE NO KID TO DEAL WITH...and you people wanna rake the nurse over the coals....no wonder this society is what it is.......



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 01:59 PM
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Originally posted by whitewave
It's stories like this that make me want to get out of nursing altogether.

Dad's on dialysis 3 times a week? Too expensive. He needs to go. Newborn infant has a heart condition that will require several surgeries to correct? We have enough healthy infants born in the world. Let that one go. Permanently disabled on the job and require lifelong therapy and a disability check? Useless eater. Definitely gotta go.


If this is truely your view, I believe you should get out of nursing also.

On topic: I blame both the nurse and patient. I never take medication prescribed to me without reading the label first.

[edit on 7/19/2008 by Griff]



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 02:01 PM
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I feel as equally sorry for the nurse and the woman in question

Both lives have been turned upside down. Without knowing the details about the situation it is difficult to pass judgement but I am always cautious of throwing the book at someone for a genuine error.

IMO - one mistake is bad and should be a severe reprimand. It only becomes negligent if the person involved has deliberately ignored safety checks or was grossly negligent.

I wonder if there was a SOP for handing out the pills. SURELY the mother must have though "why am I being given these tablets for an initial conversation"?

Surely there should have been some kind of final check before the tablets were given over "Are you sure you are happy to procede with this medication"??



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 02:06 PM
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Oh Jesus God!
We've heard of wrong amputations. Wrong meds. But this takes the cake.
Do yourself a favor and try to keep your maximus out of hospitals at all cost.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 02:21 PM
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Originally posted by quaple_pouge

This case is not the same as a woman that willing seeks out an abortion. Woman A was not planning on terminating her pregnancy, therefore the nurses actions could be considered manslaughter.


Actually, she was planning on terminating. The clinic in question "offers abortion, sterilisation and vasectomy".

When I first saw this headline and posts here it almost made me cry..until I read the article. The woman shouldn't have gotten an early medical abortion because she was too far along, she should have gotten the surgical abortion I guess, but it does appear she was planning on aborting.

Here's the clinic's website "What We Offer" page: www.calthorpe-clinic.co.uk...



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 02:25 PM
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First of all, The Calthorpe Clinic is a privately run clinic, not an NHS one.

www.calthorpe-clinic.co.uk...

Without seeing the case report, it is very hard to judge these cases ..... I know, I am a Royal College of Nursing Steward and the preliminary enquiry of any case is part of that role.

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) will have investigated most thoroughly, beleive me. The NMC has stated that this was a 'one-off incident' from a long-standing exemplary career. I know of doctors who have done far worse and are still practicing today.

Statistically, every registered nurse WILL make a drug error of some description, the same as EVERY doctor will make a drug error or wrong diagnosis over the course of their respective careers ....... this will always be the case where humans have an influence.

Checks and balances and procedureal changes will occur because of this incident. It wont stop something like this from happening again, it will just decrease the odds of it from happening again. No-one can say NEVER.

This nurse will probably never work again and I wouldnt be surprised if she ends up having mental health problems.

For those of you who do not have the Life or Death desisions on a daily basis, will never know what pressures members of the healthcare profession is under.

Incidently, Nurses in the UK start at £19,500 rising to £30,000 per annum, depending on Grade.

[edit on 19/7/08 by Wotan]

[edit on 19/7/08 by Wotan]



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 02:26 PM
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reply to post by rcwj75
 

And how about the father of this baby?!?!? You make it seem as though it is only the women who cannot keep their legs closed. But how about the man who donated his stuff in order for her to get pregnant in the first place. I agree that the woman is at fault for not asking the nurse what she was taking. However, you judge this woman on the basis that she was pregnant not fully knowing what the circumstances were leading up to how she got pregnant in the first place.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 02:37 PM
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Originally posted by Ceara
Another handy tip:

When in anyone is in the position of patient, and is handed a pill, the first questions should be

1. what is this pill
2. why am i taking it
3. what does it do
4. what are the side effects
5. should I take with food or is water ok

You don't just blindly take whatever pill someone gives you without asking questions.




Then whats the point of going to see a doctor?

Doctors are supposed to know these kinds of things.

You go to see a doctor about a sore wrist, and he accidently gives you rat posion, its your fault?

I really fail to see any logic in saying that it was the womans fault.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 03:02 PM
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reply to post by whitewave
 


That may be true in other countries, but not in the UK, nobody pays for any treatment here, and any payouts dont effect the hospital because of insurance, this is a very sad incident, and the nurse needs to be disciplined severely.

As another poster said its the work overload, i dont understand why doctors and nurses are not restricted on working hours like truck drivers or anyone else responsible for the lives of people, she was trained and has to face up to the fact she couldnt be bothered and now it effects someone for the rest of their lives.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 03:07 PM
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reply to post by azzllin
 


If its "work overload" then the doctors are STILL responsible.

When a trucker is over worked, that truckers contractor is held responsible. And there's a big difference between a nurse and a guy driving an 18-wheeler in terms of responsibility.

Falling asleep at the wheel and killing someone in a car is in no way comparable to what happened in this OP

This nurse was given instructions to give a pill to a patient

she said "oh, your name is jane, and this pill goes to paula" and gave the pill to jane anyways.


i say you sue the scrubs off this woman and the establishment.
And then you flag this thread for use at later dates when someone is sticking up for doctors by saying there are "too many malpractice lawsuits"


There's a reason there are too many. Because cases like this happen too often.



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 03:19 PM
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Originally posted by burdman30ott6
If you're driving a car wrecklessly or carelessly, strike someone, and they die you are charged with manslaughter and frequently do jail time. The nurse just did the same thing only with a murder pill rather than a car. She should be tried for negligent homicide or manslaughter, and given a pridon dentence as her negligence and lack of concern just directly caused a human being to die.


"Lack of concern"? Mistakes happen, whether you want them to or not. Any Nurse would feel horrible about this. Be happy that if you make a mistake on your job, no one dies. Burger hits the floor, you just start over. Yes this was awful, but as long as people are working, their will be mistakes, so enough of the linching talk.

If people wanted to be help, they could push for lower patient loads for nurses. It is a bigger problem than people know. Hospitals want to save money so they hire less nurses, which leads to busier nurses and more mistakes.

[edit on 19-7-2008 by ghaleon12]



posted on Jul, 19 2008 @ 03:20 PM
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I strongly suggest that some of you READ the article before making a judgement as some of you are presuming the nurse did this or the nurse did that.

I hope some of you are never on a jury.




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