Alleged drug mixup leaves 72 yo woman paralyzed

[Connie Bennett]

She only went in for knee surgery and is now paralyzed. They aren’t saying if it’s temporary or not. This was at Ascension St.Thomas, a well respected hospital in Middle Tennessee.

The hospital PR have insued apologies. I’ll bet they have for the “alleged mixup of drugs”.

Alleged drug mix-up at Ascension Saint Thomas in Nashville leaves 72-year-old woman paralyzed, family says

A medication mix-up during joint replacement surgeries at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown left at least four patients harmed, according to the hospital.

www.wsmv.com

I have totally lost trust in the medical profession………

 

[Tony Nathanson]

Cost cutting has led to such tragedies in all fields of medicine, including dentistry (as I have experienced).

 

[Don Alaska]

I once sat on a hospital safety committee, and was amazed how many drug errors nurses make in a given year. Doctors actually make some as well. Most of these are non-consequential and are generally covered up by the hospital administration is no patient harm is done. I attribute some of it to fatigue, as we noticed that when nurses are scheduled 7 on/ 7 off with 12-hour shifts, as is standard practice at many facilities now, the error rate rises dramatically as the staff nears the end of the 7 days. Add to all that, insufficient training and increased workload and responsibilities and disasters are bound to occur. This incident was self-reported in Tennessee, and that saves the facility a great deal of grief if the problem is found later by Joint Commission or other inspectors. There will still be consequences and the hospital with have to submit a plan to show that will not permit this to occur again.

Hospitals are dangerous places for both patients and staff.