A serious incident report at Watford General Hospital finds that a resident doctor had wrongly administered an intravenous does of adrenaline to a female patient.
A serious incident report by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust has found that a resident doctor had wrongly administered an intravenous (IV) does of adrenaline to a female patient only five minutes after an initial dose by injection, following a reaction to an antibiotic that had previously been prescribed to her.
The doctor had given a 20ml dose – ten times the advised 1 or 2mls – and had “panicked” after the woman’s reaction to the medication and the fact the initial dose of adrenaline failed to have an effect.
Adrenaline given via IV should only be done by a senior consultant, or under their supervision.
The patient, Rachael Emes, suffered a heart attack and epileptic seizures as a result of the incident at Watford General Hospital, and needed an extended stay in intensive care, as well as extensive support from her family when she was able to return home.
“Rachael is forced to live with lifelong consequences as a result of this shocking incident, in which a doctor who was not qualified to administer adrenaline gave her ten times the recommended dose. This could so easily have been a fatal incident we were dealing with,” said Katie Payne, solicitor in the clinical negligence team at Slater and Gordon, which is helping the family secure a settlement from the Trust.
Earlier this month, Healthcare Today reported that UK charity Healthwatch has found that almost one in four (23%) adults have noticed inaccuracies or missing details in their medical records and a Health Services Safety Investigations Body (HSSIB) report in February last year reiterated that the misidentification of patients remains a persistent safety risk across the NHS and it is one that is under-recognised and under-researched.
