I know medical mistakes happen...and we have all heard how there are shocking numbers of accidental deaths due to medical mistakes, etc. But I'm wondering on a day to day basis, is it relatively easy to avoid such mistakes? I imagine that most hospitals/doctor's offices have systems in place to try to minimize accidents.
As a new nurse were you ever scared that you were going to accidentally kill a patient? Have you ever witnessed another nurse make a huge mistake? If so - what were the circumstances involved?
Lee W
Some nurses whether they are male or female have been known to give patients medications to actually KILLl the patient. That comes from nurses who have worked for a good while and then began to hate their job and they also tell patients that they hate their jobs. It's quite common. That is why a patient should question what is being given to them and how much is being given to them. And make the nurse show the patient the medications so the patient can see it to see if he or she recognizes it! And a patient has a RIGHT to refuse medications also.
Never let a nurse pull LOOSE PILLS out of her "smock" pocket and say "here this will make you sleep"..... to the patient.
That happened to my husband late one night on the night shift and the old nurse pulled 7 white pills out of her smock pocket that WERE NOT IN A BLISTER PACK!
And she tried to make him take them and he refused! Thank GOD he did not take them because the next day when the doctor came in we questioned the doctor and asked him if he ordered anything to MAKE my husband sleep and the answer was NO!
Next issue my husband was in a different hospital and I was staying there in a private room with him on a daily basis, slept on the cot in the room. Left for about 3 hours that night to go check on the house and get mail and feed dog and bird....and I called my husbands room to check on him...and there was no answer! I kept calling and calling and calling and calling and finally the DOCTOR answered the phone in my husband's room. The doctor said my husband had been over dosage and that Two of the nurses had OVER DOSAGE HIM ON MORPHINE INJECTIONS!!!! My husband could not wake up for 48 hours and when he did slightly wake up after the doctor ordered medicine to counter act the over dosage that the 2 nurses had given him....my husband was extermely latharagic and overly sleep. It took about a week before he was able to stay alert!
We got a call one night from one of our sons college roommates. Who told us our son was in the emergency room. We went to the emergency room. And our son to me did not look good, he looked sick. The doctor did not act to concerned and stated "oh it's just the stomach flu."
We lost our 19 year old son due to medical mal-practice where an emergency room doctor miss diagnoised our son and said he had the stomach flu. It turned out SHE the doctor did not recognise any of our son's symptoms! SHE DID NOT ORDER ANY TESTS OR LAB WORK! On the medical record it showed where our son told the nurse in the emergency room of several problems, including frequent urination, excessive thirst, hunger, weight loss inspite of increased appetite, fatigue, weight loss, and blurry vision, Nausea, vomiting! The nurse gave him one bag of Lactate Ringers (Sodium water) which sort of perked him up. The NURSE had an EKG ran. At 12:45 a.m. the doctor discharged him from the emergency room to go home and take some over the counter medicine for nausea. And the doctor said follow up with your own family doctor in 1 to 2 days. I asked my son do you want to come home with us for the night? He said no cause all of his things were at the apartment that they were renting and you know how young people can be...he was trying to prove to me and his dad......"mom" I'm not a kid anymore"... you parents out there know what I mean when kids get on their own they want to prove to their parents they can stand on their own two feet and that they are not babies anymore. Right???
At 3:15 a.m. we got another phone call from his roommates (they all were going to college and worked parttime and had an apartment.) Jason his roommate told me after I answered the telephone that our son was DEAD! My husband and I were in a total SHOCK!!! Could not even drive to a different hospital were the EMS had taken our son...we were crying...and trying to drive ourselves to the hospital...speeding and running lights and not a cop in sight to help us through the traffice! We ended up having an autoposy done of our healthy son..... DIABETIC COMA! DIABETIC KEDIACIDOSIS which means DEATH FROM DIABETIC COMA! THE AUTOPSY SHOWED He had juvenile diabetes GLUCOSE LEVEL WAS 998!!!!!!! WHEN HE DIED! By his body remaining in that high state of high glucose, it damaged his heart also and he died! and the stupid doctor did not even pick up on that. So what, so we won the law suit, we won the case! But does not bring back our son!!!
PARENTS OUT THERE IF YOUR CHILD OR ANYONE IN YOUR FAMILY OR ANYONE YOU KNOW HAVE ANY OF THE ABOVE SYMPTOMS PLEASE go to a doctor and have lab work done to make sure you are not a diabetic!
Orignal From: Nurses and health professionals - is it relatively easy to avoid accidentally killing a patient?
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