Fatal Drug Mix-Up Exposes Hospital Flaws

[Mrs Behavin]

INDIANAPOLIS (Sept. 23) - Early last Saturday, nurses at an Indianapolis hospital went to the drug cabinet in the newborn intensive care unit to get blood-thinner for several premature babies.
The nurses didn't realize a pharmacy technician had mistakenly stocked the cabinet with vials containing a dose 1,000 times stronger than what the babies were supposed to receive. And they apparently didn't notice that the label said "heparin," not "hep-lock," and that it was dark blue instead of baby blue.
Those mistakes led to the deaths of three infants. Three others also suffered overdoses but survived.
Now, their families, hospital officials and prosecutors are asking the same question: How could this happen?
Experts say last weekend's overdoses at Methodist Hospital illustrate that, despite national efforts to reduce drug errors, the system is still fragile and too often subject to human error.

Fatal Drug Mix-Up Exposes Hospital Flaws - AOL News

 

[Kat]

ACK!!!! It's scary and really sad that this happened....I can't believe no one caught the mistake...you'd think when it came to something that important they'd check and triple check what they have before giving it to them...


makes me want to cry

 

[TheOriginalJames]

I heard about that. man... thats bad.

 

[hhayes]

wow thats awful.

 

[White2000GT]

I smell a huhe lawsuit coming. Those poor families. How does one break that kind of news to a new mother?

 

[Mrs Behavin]

I can guarantee that their L&D dept wont be delivering babies for a very long time!!

 

[elluko]

Oh my god! how could they let that happen!?!