LONDON, ENGLAND – June Cutmore, a 71 year old grandmother, died on Tuesday when doctors at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, England gave her penicillin.
Cutmore was wearing a red wristband at the time to alert medical staff to her allergy to the common antibiotic. In addition, Cutmore’s son-in-law was present at the time of the fatal injection. Apparently, Peter Hajduga attempted to stop the injection three times, but was ignored by the nurse administering the medication.
This is an appalling case of medical mismanagement.
Cutmore’s daughter summed up the situation succinctly: “They (hospital staff) killed somebody and I think people should know about it.”
A hospital spokesperson said: “Barts (the hospital) and the London NHS Trust is deeply sorry for the failure of the safeguards that should have protected Mrs Cutmore”. This formal apology must be cold comfort for Cutmore’s family.
Cutmore had been admitted to St Bartholomew’s for a heart valve replacement. The operation had been deemed a success. She’d been in hospital for three weeks, dealing with post-operative infection. Doctors decided to prescribe Augmentin – which contains penicillin – despite the fact that Cutmore’s chart clearly indicated her allergy.
It seems obvious that in a world with increasing rates of allergies of all kinds, our “assembly line” hospital systems will have to change. Patients deserve to be safe in a place of healing! Gross errors of this kind, when multiple safeguards at every level are bypassed, are simply medical malpractice at its worst.
It also raises questions for the parents and spouses of the severely allergic: will someone have to sit at the bedside of our loved ones every minute? Yet even this might not be enough. Cutmore had her son-in-law right beside her and that still didn’t stop the fatal injection. While the son-in-law said that the nurse should stop and that Cutmore was upset and pointing at her arm, the nurse ignored his warnings with a condescending explanation that Cutmore was just “panicking a bit”.
Source: Mail Online
