Hospital blunder

SPUGGIE J · 08-02-2006, 12:37

"An investigation has been launched after a top cancer hospital gave a teenage patient a potentially fatal overdose of radiation. Lisa Norris, 15, was given the overdose 17 times while she received treatment for a brain tumour at the Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow.
Human error has been blamed for the mistakes which happened at each of her 17 radiotherapy sessions."

How can something like this happen to a person and be put down to "human error" and that it is unlikely to happen again. Here is a young lass with her life ahead of her who might now die from the radiation given and not the tumour she was being treated for. 17 overdoses of radiation and no one even checked to be sure the dosage is correct beggers belief and when they realise what has happened it is too late.

I thought there was supposed to be safeguards against this sort of incedent happening yet they seem to have been non existant in this case. How can you tell someone your tumour is gone but we irradiated you that much that you could die anyway. The NHS seems to be making some spectacular blunders lately and to me do not have an answer to them or anyway of preventing others. We are supposed to have a healthcare system that is the envy of the world but how does it look with this kind of blunder!!!

grannyclaret · 08-02-2006, 12:43

shes just been talking about it on sky news... she is a very couragous girl, her mum was in bits...

SPUGGIE J · 08-02-2006, 13:14

I did not see the interview but will try and catch it later. How many more people are going to get the wrong treatment before someone says enough is enough. The NHS is there to heal if possible not destroy a life.

jimmi5bellies · 08-02-2006, 13:49

Ive missed it as well ...... hope it will be on again later.

chav1 · 08-02-2006, 15:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPUGGIE J

I did not see the interview but will try and catch it later. How many more people are going to get the wrong treatment before someone says enough is enough. The NHS is there to heal if possible not destroy a life.

what you have to remember is that this sort of thing is rare ( well i hope so) and our poor NHS staff are over worked but when a story like this sad as it is comes up the press , tv etc jump all over it

perhaps if our govenment spent more on the nhs and sent less money abroad there wouldnt be overworked doctors and nurses which can lead to mistakes like this happening

Tinkerbelle · 08-02-2006, 18:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by chav1

what you have to remember is that this sort of thing is rare ( well i hope so) and our poor NHS staff are over worked but when a story like this sad as it is comes up the press , tv etc jump all over it

I've got to agree with chav here, yes, hopefully, it is rare and though it's a very sad incident for the young lass the specialists made every effort to be sensitive in the way the family were informed and admitted human error at the first oppurtunity instead of trying to slide it under the rug. She is a very couragous lass with the way she appears to be dealing with it.

Phylum · 11-02-2006, 09:29

I sincerely hope she is in line for some mega compensation. I also hope the radiographer involved is taken to court.

SPUGGIE J · 11-02-2006, 11:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Phylum

I sincerely hope she is in line for some mega compensation. I also hope the radiographer involved is taken to court.

By the time it drags through the courts it might (though hopefully not) be to late for this poor lass. The big question is how will they avoid it again? Yes they may be rare and the staff are definately over worked but unless something is done to bring the NHS up to the standard we expect then it might become more common. The doctors and nurses should be doing hours that leave them fit and alert not hours that have them tired worn out and struggling. I have sypathy for nurses and doctors and believe they are getting a raw deal. These profesional people are not cannon foder but people who want to help patients get well and do a good job in doing so.

Phylum · 11-02-2006, 12:57

My mate is a radiographer and I can never see her making such a mistake, tired or not. Nurses work hard, but in a fairly 9 - 5 sort of way. It is only doctors that are stretched way beyond any fair work load and probably a doctor that ordered that amount of treatment, but someone should have picked up what was going on, and that someone should have been the radiographer.

SPUGGIE J · 11-02-2006, 13:13

Not all nurses are on an 8 hour shift. My recent experience was of them doing more and that was BRI. It seems the junior doctors do long hours so consultants and the more senior doctors can play golf (tongue in cheek) and have a life.

lettie · 11-02-2006, 13:21

Junior doctor's hours are a lot shorter than they used to be. Bear in mind that the prescription for radiotherapy would have come from a Radiologist. Radiologists are senior doctors who work monday to friday 9-5 in our local authority. Most nurses and midwives take on the traditional workload of junior doctors these days including blood taking, IV cannulation, suturing and many more, thereby reducing junior doctor's hours. If you think that nurses have short hours then you try working from 7.30am until 9pm, often without adequate breaks. I have had it worse when I've also had to be on call at night after a long shift... Tiredness cannot be used as an excuse these days, the powers that be won't accept it.

Phylum · 11-02-2006, 13:26

I simply would not work those hours. You can understand why less and less people are going into nurseing. As it is now I do a 10 hour day if you include travel.

SPUGGIE J · 11-02-2006, 13:41

Nurses seem to be getting a raw deal here. They increase their workload to decrease that of junior doctors its wrong. As for (-5 docs they should be rested and on the ball and should never make the mistake they did. Too many hours infrequint breaks and sleep reduce the efficiency of anyone so to Letties point about "Tiredness cannot be used as an excuse these days, the powers that be won't accept it." it is because they do not have suffcient nurses mistakes happen. These people should shoulder the blame not the "shopfloor cannon fodder."

pendy · 14-02-2006, 17:01

Mistakes have always been made, I've seen some real humdingers. I don't know whether the NHS is more open these days, or whether patients are more on the ball, but we do seem to hear more about them. It is better, in many ways, because the NHS is more accountable. Patients used to put up with what they got, and be grateful - very nice for those who were less than competent, not great for the patients. Not any more.

SPUGGIE J · 14-02-2006, 18:57

Hopefully a bit of it all Pendy.