Medical Negligence Patient Safety Item 1.8

MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE PATIENT SAFETY ITEM 1.8

PATIENT SAFETY ACT 2023

John Whelan Solicitor with specialist expertise in Medical Negligence and Patient Safety gives an example of a Notifiable Incident as envisaged by Item 1.8 of the Act. 

There are 13 notifiable incidents set out in the Act but other notifiable incidents may be introduced by Ministerial regulation under Section 8 of the Act.

Item 1.8

Patient death associated with a medication error and the death was unintended and unanticipated as it did not arise from or was a consequence of (or wholly attributable to) the illness of the Patient or an underlying condition of the Patient

An example of a Patient death associated with a medication error that was unintended and unanticipated occurred in this case.

A registered nurse at a hospital, administered the wrong medication to an elderly Patient, who was undergoing a routine scan for brain abnormalities.

  1. The Patient was supposed to receive a sedative that helps relax Patients during procedures.
  2. The nurse mistakenly retrieved and administered, a paralytic agent used to induce paralysis during surgeries.
  3. This mistake occurred because the nurse entered the first few letters into the hospital's electronic medication dispensing system and chose the wrong drug from the list.
  4. The administration of the paralytic agent paralysed the Patient’s muscles, including the Patient’s diaphragm, preventing the Patient from breathing, which led to a fatal brain injury due to lack of oxygen.
  5. The mistake was not related to the Patient’s underlying health condition. The Patient’s death was caused solely by the administration of the wrong medication, and this death was neither anticipated nor a result of the Patient’s illness.
  6. The mistake was entirely due to the administration of the wrong drug, which was not intended to be part of the treatment.

For more detailed insights into how the Patient Safety Act 2023 impacts you and how Whelan Law can support you, please visit our Patient Safety Rights Legal Advice https://www.whelanlaw.ie/news/medical-negligence-and-patient-safety/

 

 

 

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