A patient that had his stomach upset following a session of dialysis was given a drug that induced paralysis instead of the prescribed antacid, which then induced a cardiac arrest and later, his death. As reported by ABC News, and several other media outlets, the family of the deceased has filed a lawsuit naming the nurse, hospital, a pharmacist and the hospital's parent company, in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
The incident occurred at the North Shore Medical Center in Miami.
M.S., the son of the deceased and an EMT, said simply, "The hospital killed my dad." M.S. was also the first to discover his father "unconscious, unresponsive and on a respirator" and, when he queried a nurse as to what had happened, he was told that his father had "coded."
M.S. reported, "The nurse said my dad had coded. I said, 'He coded? When did that happen?'"
Looking at his father's chart he discovered that his dad had been resuscitated just 10 minutes prior. At this point, M.S. said, "The nurse basically told me, 'Talk to the doctor'."
Allegedly the doctor told M.S., "I'm sorry to have to tell you this but the nurse administered the wrong medication and sent your dad into respiratory arrest."
M.S. further stated the doctor explained to him that the nurse had "grabbed the wrong package" as the "packaging looked the same."
U.O. is the nurse named in the suit and the medication, he administered in error, is called pancuronium. The drug is normally used to relax a patient during intubations. A higher dose can be used for lethal injections.
R.S., 79 years old at the time of his death, suffered with a history of kidney disease before entering the ICU on July 29, 2010.
The family is represented by Andrew Yaffa who told reporters, "This is the worst case of medical neglect I have ever seen. The hospital just seems to be thumbing their nose to this family" and that U.O. "is still working there in the exact same unit where the medical error occurred."
Media has reported that U.O, though fined and retrained, is still an employee of the hospital. Instead of removing him, the pancuronium has been removed from every nursing station and is only available to anesthesiologists in the operating room.
A report from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration reads that U.O. "failed to look and read what medication he was taking ... failed to scan to determine the right count for the medication, failed to match the patient's ID with the scanned medication."
The family is asking for compensation that will repay them for their funeral and medical expenses, as well as damages for their pain and suffering.
The hospital issued a statement that read, "Our hearts go out to the (S.) family for their loss. This was a tragic event which we immediately self-reported to the Agency for Health Care Administration. We conducted an internal review and have several new processes in place to ensure a situation like this does not happen again."
If you fear that you have lost a loved one due to errors made in a hospital, contact a medical malpractice attorney for help filing a lawsuit today!