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Nurse stood down after grandma dies from overdose

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Fri, 13 May 2011 10:48a.m.

60-year-old Shirley Curtis was treated at North Shore Hospital for five days before dying of an overdose

60-year-old Shirley Curtis was treated at North Shore Hospital for five days before dying of an overdose

The nurse who administered a lethal heart medication overdose to a 60-year-old grandmother has been stood down.

The woman died after being given 10 times as much medication as required.

Shirley Curtis, who had had a triple bypass, was admitted to North Shore Hospital with breathing problems and swollen feet just before Easter, One News reported.

After five days in hospital Ms Curtis was due to be discharged when she was overdosed with metaprolol, a beta blocker which slows the heart.

"Things were going off and red lights were flashing and they said they can't get a pulse," niece Donna Stanton said.

"We were told the doctor had prescribed 12.5ml and the nurse had given her 125ml, which caused severe heart failure and then multiple organ failure."

Ms Curtis died the next day.

Dr Katherine Wallis from the Dunedin School of Medicine says mistakes do happen and the profession is shocked.

“It’s devastating for the families, but, there are no winners out of this situation,” Dr Wallis told RadioLIVE.

“Professionals feel terrible as well so we’re all trying to put our heads down and find ways to stop this kind of thing happening in the future.”

The Waitemata District Health Board has admitted the dosage was wrong and says the cause of death is being investigated by the coroner and police. 

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Comments

16 May 2011 05:11p.m.

Doug wrote:

Rob, your comment proves the point that mistakes are very easy to make. The article talks about mils not mg of the drug. Maybe the nurse is dyslexic too.

16 May 2011 01:56p.m.

Rob wrote:

I'm puzzled as to why she was only prescribed 12.5mg which seems a very small dosage unless it was to given intravenously. My understanding was that she was given 125 mg by mouth which is usually in a slow release form, which is not much different from that given to lots of heart patients or people with high blood pressure.(I think they even give 23mg tabs for people with headaches like migraines!)I know of an old lady of 93 who takes 3 of 23.75mg tabs each day just to keep her blood pressure down a bit. I just think we shouldn't blame the nurse yet. I could imagine how she/he is feeling, and being blamed by the niece that he/she caused the lady's death could easily ruin a career; when it may not be the cause, especially as it seems the lady was already very sick. Rob

13 May 2011 07:15p.m.

Neil wrote:

There is something seriously wrong at North Shore Hospital. This is not the first time it has been in a controversy and it certainly won't be the last. I honestly hope that I don't end up in that Death Trap.

13 May 2011 07:14p.m.

new plymouth pharmacist wrote:

I'm a Pharmacist here in Taranaki, and in my extensive experience mistakes I see on hospital prescriptions (here and my stent at Wellington Hospital) are solely due to poor handwriting. We often see common Latin abbreviations miss used, inaccurate doses for children of a certain weight and unsafe prescribing for women in pregnancy. As pharmacists we, more often than not, are spending most of our time chasing after Doctors due to their unclear prescribing. So when a Pharmacist is absent in medication use, thats when we see these unfortunate mistakes. Any Pharmacist would immediately query such a high dose of Metoprolol at a drop of the hat.

13 May 2011 03:42p.m.

Doug wrote:

Amy, blaming the Dr's handwriting is a bit of a cop out when clearly the nurse read the 125 but quite obviously missed the decimal point. You could be right about substandard training, but then again it would be a simple thing to pick up a copy of the New Ethicals catalogue (which should be available on the ward) and have a read up on the drug he or she was administering, so that he or she was familiar with normal doses, adverse effects, normal doses etc. Having said that, I do agree that slip ups can happen, and there must be more to this, as I always thought it was common practice to have medication double checked before administering it.

13 May 2011 01:46p.m.

Amy wrote:

Of course the nurse is getting blamed for this, when possibly the doctors handwriting is so bad that no one can read it. There needs to be a written standard for doctors - or better yet, do what they do in the states, but putting all orders on the computer, and having PHARMACY review the orders. It was up to the nurse to know that she was giving too much, but here in NZ - nurses questioning doctors doesn't fare very well, since nurses are not respected anyhow. The education for nurses in NZ needs to be improved -- but when are people doing to actually do something about it? It is easy to blame the nurses - they are the ones receiving sub-standard education, but they are also the ones who are left to work the front line. Nurses need more support and more eduation...period. When will this happen? I don't know, but someone up in govt needs to wake the hell up & realize how important nurses are to those that need services. There aren't many doctors left in this country, so the nurses are the ones that will end up taking care of most of the population. It is important that they at least know what they are doing. let's give them the tools (education) to do this.