This story is getting a lot of play here. Here are the basics:
In short, the unsupervised pharmacy technician, in her second week on the job, wrongly added insulin to an undisclosed number of intravenous nutrient bags prescribed to sick infants.
The feeding bags contained no indication of insulin on their labels. They apparently were not checked by the pharmacist before delivery to the neonatal intensive care unit. They were then administered to the tiny patients by nurses unaware of the insulin within.
Almost immediately, several of the children around the unit hit a dangerous state of hypoglycemia . . .
. . . Four years later, the family copes with what they believe is the tragic outcome. Nicholas suffers from cerebral palsy. He is moderately deaf. His vision is dismal. He can’t stand and needs a walker to toddle around. His intellectual development has been impaired. Meanwhile, his sister, who didn’t receive a tainted feeding bag, is a normal, healthy little girl.
Now, the parents are suing the hospital as well as the pharmacy. The columnist slams MGH for not disclosing the names of the other infants involved. Tough call for MGH – no way I can see them disclosing patient information to the public. The lawsuit was on all the local channels here.
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- A designer IV bag makes a hospital fashion statement
- Hospital CEOs should be vetted more thoroughly
- A different take on ACCORD
- Should elderly patients always be admitted to the hospital?
- A critically ill baby can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder in the parents
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I have many friend who practice medicine and in my early life I was a respiratory therapist. If the story has been revealed to the public that should be enough. If the other families want to make public comments they can call the newspaper. It would be important to me that every baby’s family that received this incorrect feeding was informed of the mishap.
I have a friend who is in internal medicine. She did her fellowship and went right to a big money practice. After the first year she was miserable about all the rules: we only treat one problem per visit, and the plethora of rules for treatment and she felt like she worked for Great Clips in and out in fifteen minutes. She left that group and started her own practice. She is a great physician who doesn’t mess around. She has struggled to make it but is now practicing medicine as much on her own terms as anyone can with insurance companies to deal with. She just bought her first new car a black BMW. Its what you make it.
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