Woman suffers hospital blunder again

[okarol]

May 23, 2007

Woman suffers hospital blunder again

By ANDREW HANON, SUN MEDIA

For the second time this month, Bob Singleton spent the weekend praying for his wife's life after her kidney dialysis treatment went horribly awry.

"It's blunders, and nothing but," an angry Singleton said yesterday.

Singleton said his wife Kathleen, 62, spent the Victoria Day weekend at the University of Alberta hospital when she went into anaphylactic shock after being administered the antibiotic Ancef on Friday evening. She was give Ancef because she's allergic to penicillin.

After a tense weekend, she is now recovering at home.

On May 7, Kathleen ended up paralyzed and semi-conscious in the U of A hospital emergency ward after she was accidentally given another patient's medication, magnesium sulphide, at the Edmonton General dialysis clinic.

The Singletons received profuse apologies from Capital Health brass for the May 7 mishap, along with promises to change procedures to ensure it never happens again.

But Capital Health spokesman Steve Buick said in the Ancef case, staff at the U of A dialysis clinic did nothing wrong. Kathleen previously had been given the antibiotic, which is often given to people who cannot receive penicillin, with no ill effects, he said.

Friday's near-tragedy, Buick said, "was unlikely and very difficult to foresee."

Buick said the nurse practitioner who administered the Ancef checked with a doctor first.

Since Kathleen had received it as recently as February, there were no complications anticipated.

According to Kathleen's chart, Buick said, the Ancef was administered properly.

"We totally sympathize with the Singletons," Buick said.

However, he added, things sometimes take a bad turn even when everyone does everything correctly. "It's part of the nature of health care."

After the magnesium sulphide incident, Singleton vowed never to take his wife to the Edmonton General dialysis clinic.

Now he says Kathleen, who is not a kidney transplant candidate and will be on dialysis for the rest of her life, will never be treated at the U of A clinic.

He said yesterday he'll take her to the Royal Alex for dialysis.

Singleton said he's trying to get a meeting with Health Minister Dave Hancock to discuss his complaints.

The magnesium sulphide incident is still under investigation, but Capital Health officials say some changes have already been made to procedures at dialysis clinics.

Magnesium sulphide is now banned from northern Alberta dialysis clinics except where it is absolutely necessary to have it.

Earlier this month, a report was released into the death of a 43-year-old Rainbow Lake woman who overdosed when an improperly programmed medical pump gave her a lethal dose of drugs at the Cross Cancer Institute last summer.

The report made several recommendations to ensure similar overdoses don't happen again.

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2007/05/23/4201456-sun.html