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A Pennsylvania ASC will pay $5.1 million in damages for a tragic medication mix-up that left a woman with brain damage. The jury award serves as a reminder to surgical centers everywhere about the importance of labeling all meds.
According to Outpatient Surgery magazine, the patient, Jacqueline DiTore, suffered the injury during sinus surgery at Abington Surgical Center. The mix-up occurred when a nurse mistook an unlabeled basin filled with the nasal decongestant Afrin for the local anesthetic the surgeon ordered. Instead of filling the syringe with lidocaine, she filled it with the Afrin, which had been prepared by another nurse to help control bleeding during the surgery.
Immediately after the Afrin was inadvertently injected into DiTore’s septum, her heart rate dropped rapidly. In response, the anesthesiologist administered a rescue medication. The surgeon then realized the error that the nurse had made and injected the lidocaine causing DiTore’s heart rate and blood pressure to spike. Ultimately, she went into cardiac arrest and was transported to a nearby hospital.
Although she survived, DiTore’s attorney argued that oxygen deprivation caused brain damage that impaired her speech, vision, memory and balance. DiTore’s surgeon and the surgical center denied liability arguing that other surgical personnel were responsible. They also claimed that DiTore made a full recovery.
The jury saw things differently awarding the patient $4.6 million in damages and her husband $500,000.
To learn more, read the entire article.
