Comments on: Should health care workers go to jail for medical errors?

By: IL PharmD

IL PharmD — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:42:18 +0000

[skshrews, NaCl 23.4% is indeed commercially available, and is most often used for compounding parenteral nutrition.]

By: skshrews

skshrews — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:07:10 +0000

I’m surprised no one has commented on “23% saline”?

Is there such a solution? I’ve been a physician for several years and I have never heard of such a concentrated saline solution. I could not find any references to it on the web.

If such a solution exists, what was it doing anywhere near other therapeutic infusions? 23% saline is obviously toxic.

Whoever allowed such a concentration (if it indeed exists) to be placed in the pharmacy near other medications is the responsible party in this tragedy.

By: stargirl65

stargirl65 — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 21:31:57 +0000

They want errors to be reported more often but this case illustrates why the medical community is reluctant to report true errors.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 01:55:58 +0000

Does anyone know how to contact Eric Cropp?

I too have written about his plight. See this post:

http://www.taproot.com/wordpress/2009/08/20/pharmacist-gets-six-months-in-jail-for-fatal-prescription-error/

I no that as part of his probation he is required to speak about the accident so that others can learn from it.

I have a speaking opportunity I would like to discuss with him.

Best Regards,

Mark

By: Michael Kirsch, M.D.

Michael Kirsch, M.D. — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 19:49:43 +0000

Skepticus, you are too extremicus. Of course, if the pharmacist or the tech messed up, they should be accountable. Their negligence, however, would not be criminal. If it were, then every town in the nation would need a new prison to house the newfound criminal offenders.

By: skepticus

skepticus — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:00:45 +0000

With responsibility comes accountability–that is the only way civilized society can function. The “no one is to blame/ we all are to blame” mantra of the health safety movement is a vicious lie. Individual decisions have consequences; if we want good decisions, we must punish (in civil or criminal courts depending upon the extent of the negligence/harm) bad decisions. It’s really quite simple–and only doctors’ pathological self-interest clouds this obvious truth.

Oh . . . and, if on the margins we get fewer physicians, that may be a good thing. Remember the Dartmouth Atlas findings: fewer docs, more health.

By: W

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:05:46 +0000

Go to jail for an error the comes in the process of practicing medicine in the best known manner, of course not. Now, if you’re caught trying to deny or conceal that error…another matter entirely.

By: ninguem

ninguem — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:42:12 +0000

Ancient Babylon, code of Hammurabi:

“…..If a physician operate on a man for a severe wound with a bronze lancet and cause the man’s death; or open an abscess … of a man with a bronze lancet and de- stroy the man’s eye, they shall cut off his fingers……”

I’ve always wondered if this was the result of such harsh punishment of physicians in Babylon. Herodotus noticed this in his travels to Babylon:

http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/greek-babylon.html

I.197: The following custom seems to me the wisest of their institutions next to the one lately praised. They have no physicians, but when a man is ill, they lay him in the public square, and the passers-by come up to him, and if they have ever had his disease themselves or have known any one who has suffered from it, they give him advice, recommending him to do whatever they found good in their own case, or in the case known to them; and no one is allowed to pass the sick man in silence without asking him what his ailment is.

By: Primary Care Internist

Primary Care Internist — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 21:27:39 +0000

Then what about the IOM report (how many jumbo jets crashing are the equivalent of the # deaths caused by medical errors in this country?) – perhaps we should double the prison population by jailing anyone ever directly or indirectly responsible for a medication error resulting in a patient’s death.

Many of us will not admit it, but perhaps the MAJORITY of healthcare professionals would be in jail by the IOMs definition.

A sad outcome for the family of the little girl, but still a ridiculous case against a pharmacist who made a mistake, albeit a tragic one.

By: Claire

Claire — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:00:16 +0000

Not hard to feel sorry for this man; harder to figure out what would be an appropriate “punishment”. Maybe the horror of knowing you caused a child’s death is in itself more than most of us would want to bear. But I think it is a bit rich to pitch this as science against emotion, or to talk about the mother wanting her pound of flesh. It was a mistake, not a crime, but if you work in an area where mistakes are lethal, what then? If the conditions were such as to make this kind of mistake more likely, then do you not have a responsibility at that point to refuse to tolerate them?