Medicine mix-up causes
7-year-old's death
The
death of a 7-year-old girl after being administered wrong painkiller is ruled
'accidental' by local police department.
Washington Elementary School student,
Tania Abondanzio, was admitted to Mercy Hospital last Friday morning for the
removal of her tonsils in a tonsillectomy and died Saturday morning.
After a thorough investigation, it was
determined that Tania's cause of death was being administered the wrong
medication by a pediatric nurse, said hospital officials.
The nurse gave the girl a half milligram
of hydromorphone, known as Dilaudid, instead of the morphine sulphate
prescribed by her physician.
Tania was given the drug at 2:30 p.m.
Friday afternoon and later developed severe respiratory problems at 2:40
p.m. She also complained of being hot
and went into what appeared to be a seizure, then was transferred to the
intensive care ward where she remained in a coma until Saturday morning and was pronounced brain dead.
She was taken off the respirators and
died minutes at 9:40 a.m. on Saturday morning.
The nurse who administered the drug
noticed what had happened while doing a routine narcotics inventory during the
shift changed and notified her supervisor immediately.
The hospital administrator, Dr. Irwin
Greenhouse, released this statement to the press, "Our sympathy goes out
to the family, and we will stay close to them to provide support."
The nurse's name has not been released,
but she has been suspended.
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