'Wrong' woman given abortion after nurse mixed up patients

'Wrong' woman given abortion after nurse mixed up patients

www.dailymail.co.uk

A woman was given a chemical abortion tablet by mistake after a nurse mixed up two patients with the same first name, a misconduct hearing has heard.

Ann Downer gave the drug to a woman who had gone into the clinic for an initial consultation.

When staff realised what had happened the distraught woman, named only as patient A, was called back to the clinic in pain and doctors subsequently advised her to undergo a surgical abortion.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This is terrible, I cant imagine what she must be feeling right now. How do they make up for this? The nurse has got to feel terrible as well. Im sure this will bring forth a lawsuit, but in this case probably justified.
www.dailymail.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 19-7-2008 by bakednutz]

The Nurse needs to be taken to an NMC misconduct and fitness to practise hearing, struck off, and kept away from nursing for the rest of her life.

She then needs to be sued stupid as does the NHS trust who employed her.

Drug errors are unforgivable full stop. Patient drug chart and notes should be in the nurses hands, then the drug should be taken from the box and checked against whats written by the Dr for the specific patient, and then the PATIENT should be asked by the nurse to confirm their FULL NAME and date of birth while the nurse reads the data off of the notes in front of her.

This basic skill is taught in the very first days of the very first year of nursing training and hammered home every single placement.

I hope the lazy idle b#### gets dragged across the coals and has her life destroyed -

Drug errors make me

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.

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.

Especially while pregnant. If she was going in there for a consultation and stupidly took a pill, well then it's just as much her fault as the NHS.

Patient: "What's this pill?"

Nurse: "Oh, it's the rest of your abortion tablet prescription."

Patient: "What? I don't want to abort, I'm having a baby."

Nurse: "Oops sorry."

I agree, she should be charged with murder. Even if it was unintentional.

reply to post by Ceara


Unfortunately, in my experience 80%+ patients dont ask what their medications are or for what purpose, they blindly just take them and dont ask questions.

Too many patients will just agree with whatever a healthcare professional are saying, even if it is wrong ......... its called 'white coat syndrome'.

reply to post by Wotan


That's why it should be more public. Doctors and nurses can encourage people to ask questions.

I tell everyone the same deal, to ask a million questions and just don't blindly believe.

A pregnant woman going in for a consultation should have seen a red flag when she might not have been examined yet and was already given a pill.

My sister-in-law is about the most dense, stupid person I've ever met. She goes to the doctor and the doctor claims she has all these medical issues and wants to prescribe medication for stuff that could be solved with a simple change in diet. She didn't need the pills IMO.

So sis-in-law gets a prescription for Lipitor. I tell her before she takes any pill to read up on it online or in a prescription book. Talk with the pharmacist, etc. I later tell her, don't take it, it will make you feel bad and you'll end up quitting it anyway. She blows me off as if I'm the stupid one. I saw a few people get progressively worse and feel bad everyday because of that pill and warned her about it.

Three months later she comes over, "oh my legs ache ever since I started taking those pills." A big "I told you so" begins to cross my lips but then I realize I'm talking to an idiot who won't listen to a thing I say.

Two weeks after she quits the pills, she says oh she feels much better and shouldn't have taken the pills.

*sigh*

She implements a change in diet, goes back for a blood test, which reveals the change in diet worked. She never needed the pills in the first place.

This is really terrible.

Ceara is absolutely right, but I can somehow understand the lady who took the pill without asking what it was. People think that doctors and nurses just don't make these mistakes, but these sort of things happen more often then most people think.

I read an article about a women here in The Netherlands that got the wrong leg amputated, because the nurse marked the wrong leg just before surgery. What a horror story.

I wish the lady in question the best.

It's stories like this that make me want to get out of nursing altogether.

This is a horrible example of what happens when you put the work of 3-5 people on one person and expect them to never make a mistake.

Do any of you ever make mistakes on your job? If so, does anyone ever call for your head on a silver platter because of it? No? Then apparently your jobs aren't a matter of life and death. You're not in a war zone. Nurses are.

I agree that this is an unacceptable med error but, I think a RCA (root cause analysis) of the situation would reveal that the nurse was overburdened. Solution? Get more help. Since that's not going to happen (cuts into profits) the company will just sacrifice the nurse, get some other fool to take her place and continue on merrily as if nothing happened.

I don't think any of you realize the horrific working conditions that nurses endure. Most nurses are co-dependent personalities that will continue in the face of overwhelming work load to trudge dutifully ahead, doing the most they can, the best they can. They show up day after day knowing they're going to be abused by the Doctors, patients, family members, administration and even other nurses. They still slap a professional smile on their faces and continue to give comfort, solace and as much "care" as can be given in an 12-16 hour day.

I'd be surprised if the nurse mentioned in the article doesn't commit suicide. That'll fix the nursing shortage. Yep and she deserves it too. *sarcasm off* The patient does bear some responsibility for her own care and, in fact, has the right to refuse meds and treatments she deems inappropriate. One does have to go to all the trouble to ask what their pills are for, though. Let's reward stupidity and laziness by giving her a big chunk of money and then we can all sit around and wonder why OUR healthcare bills have escalated.

Because of the increasing amount of mistakes like this one, I can tell you what's going to happen to the healthcare industry, folks. This is a prediction you're not going to like but mark my words, it'll come about. With the median age of people in America reaching "middle age" and beyond (requiring more healthcare), the insurance companies failing financially (from paying for all that healthcare and lawsuits), the critical nursing shortage, the AIDS epidemic and the current economic crisis; what one stroke of the pen will fix all those problems? Answer: let the people die.

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.

What most facilities do in cases like this is suspend the nurse pending investigation, fill out the paperwork for a sentinel event which goes to several beaurocracies and then, if the nurse is allowed back, a medication refresher course is given. The choices are that or the previously mentioned scenario or you get out of your hospital bed and get your meds yourself because there's no one available to get them for you.

You truly can't fix stupid.

This nurse knew full well what pill she had and to make a mistake like this is unforgivable.

reply to post by Ceara




thankfully you said it before i had to . . .

Originally posted by whitewave


Do any of you ever make mistakes on your job? If so, does anyone ever call for your head on a silver platter because of it? No? Then apparently your jobs aren't a matter of life and death. You're not in a war zone. Nurses are.

I don't make mistakes that cost somebody their LIFE.
If I did, I would EXPECT for others to call for my head on a silver platter.

And no, not everybody's job is a "matter of life and death", at least not physically. But the world would be a pretty dismal place without them.

I hope they slap them with 50 million pounds worth of damages to the woman. Not because the money would bring back her child, but because the wallet is the only place where the medical establishment hurts. And so, they may pay more attention the next time.







[edit on 19-7-2008 by AdAstra]

[edit on 19-7-2008 by AdAstra]

Originally posted by Wotan
reply to post by Ceara

 

Unfortunately, in my experience 80%+ patients dont ask what their medications are or for what purpose, they blindly just take them and dont ask questions.

That's because very often doctors and nurses, for whatever reason, DISCOURAGE the patients from asking questions.
I've seen it happen very often.

Originally posted by ThreeDeuce
I agree, she should be charged with murder. Even if it was unintentional.

It's called manslaughter.
And yes, she should be charged with it.

reply to post by AdAstra


You seem to be under the delusion that they'll be able to afford a "next time". Not only will their liability insurance premiums skyrocket (costs will be passed on to the consumer, btw) but now they'll only be able to afford a CMA (certified medication administrator) with 2 months of training instead of a registered nurse with 2-4 years of training.

We police our own pretty darn well and are our own worst critics.

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]

I am hard-headed about such things.

I think the DOCTOR is responsible for this error.

Doctors command more respect and authority (in my country tremendous pay) and all because of the extensive - comprehensive - all encompassing - body of knowledge they are forced to memorize while performing slave labor in 24 hour shifts.

They are those who accept all the accolades for a job well done, every patient success story have a phrase about the 'doctors efforts', every pedestal in every hospital has a doctor on it. When a doctor barks the nurse jumps.

Yet here we have a stereotypical scenario where the doctor glances at a chart and says - "give xyz pill to the patient" (a truly astounding exercise of intellect and medical wisdom) and when the error is made (thanks for 'checking up' on your patient Dr.) the doctors scurry like cockroaches under the liability shield.

Yes, the Nurse was the last point in the chain, but then so was the patient, as another poster rightly pointed out. the SOURCE of this error comes from the arrogance of doctors who refuse to deal with the patient because 'they're too important' to stoop to such a level.

The doctor should have been present during the administration of a medication of this nature - end of story.

reply to post by bakednutz


I find it hard to believe that a mistake of this type could ever happen. I have to go to the hospital on a regular basis and before they do anything they ask for first and last name, birth date, and even my wife's name.

If this really happened, then hospital management should be held accountable for inferior standard procedures.

reply to post by Maxmars


You're generally correct in what you say. There is the law of "respondant superior" which basically means that the erring ones superior hired the erring one and should have known what they were getting; making the "superiors" liable. This is why lawyers usually go after the doctors and facility that hired the one who made the error. Suing the nurse is pretty futile as the nurse doesn't make enough money to make it worthwhile.

On the flip side, it was determined long ago that nurses (registered nurses anyway) were considered professionals who were properly trained and should know enough to disregard a doctors order which they knew to be a bad order. I told an doctor once that "you can write a stupid order but I'm not going to note it or carry it out. You might want to rethink that one." I paid dearly for my "insubordination" but when they threatened to get another nurse to carry out the lethally stupid order, I threatened to go to the family and tell them what was coming down the pike.

I once had a doctor with 2 patients on the unit. He wrote perfectly acceptable orders for each patient....just on the wrong charts. He wrote patient "A's" orders on patient "B's" chart and vice versa. I pointed it out, politely, and was told, "Don't you EVER question an attending physician's orders, girlie" which caused me to explode. I took the problem all the way up the chain of command and the doctor was told to "just fix it" and I was given a black mark for "not being a team player". I had to threaten to expose the lot of them to get the black mark removed. Not many nurses (who are mainly female) have the hutzpah to risk their careers in order to protect complete strangers (patients).

The nursing board ruled (a few years ago) that nurses' are NO LONGER PRIMARILY PATIENT ADVOCATES. We are now corporate pawns whose loyalty is supposed to be to the "company". Most of us are quietly ignoring that mandate and voting our conscience, consequences be hanged.

That said, the woman taking the pill that caused her damage was wronged. She is not required or expected to have the training or knowledge to determine her own healthcare which is why she went to a doctor in the first place. She is, however, expected to take an active role in her own care and at least ask questions and make informed choices based on the answers to those questions.

I pass pills to approximately 25 patients a day. Average 10 pills per patient. I have 1 hour to pass them all or get "written up" for a med error (wrong time). Many of the meds have to be crushed. Some patients want it in pudding, some in applesauce, some with water, some spit them back out which causes me to have to go down the hall and get all 10 of their pills and crush them again. During that harried hour, the phone rings 20 times, 25 family members want to stop and tell me about their aunt Bertha's bursitis and bowel movements, 12 people are lost and want directions on how to get where they want to go in the facility, the boss comes around and tells me my uniform has a spot on it (from the spit up meds) and I need to "clean that up immediately" or risk getting sent home, the doctor comes in and wants me to stop what I'm doing to do rounds with him and write down his orders, one of the staff members is experiencing chest pain and could I just do a quick blood pressure check, glucose fingerstick and EKG, a patient falls out of bed and requires immediate attention, etc. All the while, I must know the classification, mechanism of action, side effects, contraindications of all those meds I just passed, watch for adverse reactions, chart on all of it, and keep my sanity. Damn! I'm good!

Actually, I'm surprised there aren't more incidents like the one mentioned in the article.