Narcotics: Jury Blames Overdose On Hospital’s Procedures.
Legal Eagle Eye Newsletter for the Nursing Profession
June 2015
The jury ruled expressly that the hospital’s procedures for handling duplicative medical orders did not meet the standard of care. COURT OF APPEALS OF OHIO May 14, 2015
The patient’s laminectomy and spinal fusion procedure went ahead without a hitch.
Then at 2:00 a.m. the next morning a lab technician found the patient cyanotic and unresponsive in his med/surg hospital room. He died two days later from anoxic brain injury due to respiratory arrest.
In the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) two resident physicians had written duplicate orders for narcotics which were both given by a PACU nurse.
The patient was also medicated in the PACU with patient-controlled anesthesia (PCA). The PACU nurse added PCA dosing to the patient’s own on orders from the anesthesiologist. On leaving the PACU for a med/surg floor the patient was handed a take-home dose of an oral narcotic.
On the med/surg floor the nurses gave him more pain medication and a sleeping pill before he was found unresponsive.
The jury in the family’s malpractice lawsuit against the hospital ruled expressly that the hospital’s procedures were inadequate for controlling duplicative dosing of narcotics by different caregivers all under the same roof.
However, the jury only awarded a small portion of the damages to which the family was entitled even though the hospital’s negligence was the cause of death. Apparently the jury was confused by the jury instructions given by the trial judge, an error the trial judge had tried to correct by ordering a new trial.
The Court of Appeals of Ohio agreed the family was entitled to a new trial. Henry v. Hospital, 2015 WL 2251214 (Ohio App., May 14, 2015).
More references from nursinglaw.com
http://www.nursinglaw.com/overdose.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/overdose-morphine-negligence.htm
http://www.nursinglaw.com/overdose13.pdf
http://www.nursinglaw.com/overdose11.pdf