A drug mix-up at a hospital in Tennessee has led to some tragic consequences for several patients.
At least four people who recently visited Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown are believed to have received accidental injections of the wrong drug during routine procedures. One of these patients, since identified as 72-year-old Glenda Dorton, was left paralyzed following her injection, possibly for life. State officials are reportedly now investigating the matter.
“Currently, she has zero feeling, movement, or response to pain from her breastbone down. We don’t know what recovery looks like or if there is recovery,” Dorton’s daughter-in-law, Kristina Dorton, told local media outlet WKRN News 2 Tuesday.
A tragic error
According to her family, Glenda Dorton went in for a knee replacement at the hospital last Friday, August 14th.
Dorton was supposed to be given the anesthetic bupivacaine as part of a spinal epidural, but instead received an injection of potassium, though the specific formulation and amount of the potassium given isn’t known. When she awoke from the procedure, doctors immediately rushed her to the intensive care unit. Kristin Dorton told the Tennessean that doctors blamed the mistaken injection on a medication mix-up at the hospital’s pharmacy.
Some potassium injections are medically used to treat or prevent low potassium levels and other issues. Too much of it, however, can be dangerous or even life-threatening. Potassium chloride, for example, is even used to induce fatal cardiac arrest in prisoners executed via lethal injection.
A statement from Shubhada Jagasia, president and CEO of Ascension Saint Thomas’s Midtown and West campuses, to Gizmodo this afternoon appears to confirm at least three other similar cases stemming from the mix-up, but she declined to provide details about any of them nor how the injections were misplaced, citing patient privacy.
“Our hearts are with the four patients and their families impacted by this event. On behalf of our leadership and care teams, I am deeply sorry for the harm caused to our patients. We have met directly with each of the families to express our deep support, connected them with spiritual care teams, and ensured they have access to all appropriate resources and ongoing care needed,” Jagasia said.
“The day of the event, we self-reported to state regulators and launched a thorough investigation,” Jagasia added. “We identified the cause and have implemented corrective safeguards.”
What next?
According to WKRN News 2, officials from the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission were at the hospital Wednesday to conduct an investigation into what happened. As of Thursday, the outlet further reported, Glenda Dorton is still paralyzed.
“We just are hoping that publicizing this gets some sort of genius somewhere that knows what to do…Time is of the essence here for recovery,” Kristin Dorton said.
Unfortunately, this particular kind of mistake can be especially grave. A 1998 case report, cited by WKRN News 2, detailed a similar accidental replacement of bupivacaine with potassium chloride during a routine spinal anesthesia. In that case, the person developed pain, cramps, and died within about two and a half hours of the injection.
