A patient at St. Charles Bend (Ore.) hospital has died after being given incorrect medication in the emergency room, according to a Bend Bulletin report.
A 65-year-old woman who came to the ER Monday with concerns about medication doses after a recent brain surgery at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle was given a paralyzing agent, rocuronium, instead of an anti-seizure medication called fosphenytoin, according to the report. She then went into cardiac arrest and suffered brain damage before being removed from life support Wednesday.
Now, St. Charles Health Care officials are analyzing what went wrong, walking through from when the drug order was written to when it was administered. "We've never had anything like this happen here," Michel Boileau, MD, St. Charles' chief clinical officer, told the Bend Bulletin. "Before we say exactly what happened, we're going to make sure we're accurate…We do know there was a medication error."
As a result of the error, three hospital employees are on administrative leave and receiving counseling.
According to the report, the family of the deceased is not yet sure if they will pursue legal action.