Preemie death blamed on hospital screwup
With echoes of Dennis Quaid’s high-profile hospital case last year, it appears another hospital pharmacy made an error, this time resulting in the death of a premature infant:
[Kathleen] Shinn says she could tell [her daughter] Alyssa was on the brink of death.
“I just knew,” she said. “And I just started to cry hysterically, knowing that my daughter Alyssa was going to die.”
After confirming that no one else was going to visit Alyssa, physicians turned off the ventilator and the Shinns held their lifeless child for the first time. “We were able to put her in a little dress,” said Shinn. “And I got to hold her for the first time.”
The Shinns were told that, during the night, Alyssa had received a fatal overdose of zinc from her intravenous nutrition bag, a mistake made in the hospital pharmacy. Pam Goff, the lead pharmacist on duty, was summoned to see her supervisor.
“I just broke down into tears and I started to shake,” Goff said. “And I just sobbed uncontrollably. I went back to my desk and started to vomit and cry and shake.”
Information from: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Story?id=42...
