Blunders plague Hong Kong hospitals, again: Elderly patient dies from morphine overdose given by nurse
Student nurse gave 28-times too much morphine in fatal mix-up
An 84-year-old woman died after a student nurse at North District Hospital gave her an overdose of morphine 28 times higher than the prescribed amount, the Hospital Authority announced yesterday.
This is the latest in a series of serious medical blunders that happened in Hong Kong’s public hospitals in recent months.
The hospital in Sheung Shui has apologised to the patient’s family and would set up a panel to investigate the death. The investigation is expected to take eight weeks, the authority said.
“[The hospital] expresses its deepest condolences to the family for the death of the patient and continues to closely communicate with the family to provide all the necessary assistance,” a hospital spokesman said.
According to the authority, the patient was at the terminal stage of malignant melanoma – a type of skin cancer that develops from pigment-containing cells – and was transferred to the hospital’s surgical ward on November 18. Radiographic imaging found holes in her abdominal organs.
On the same day, the hospital prescribed her a morphine infusion of 3.3 milliliters an hour – containing 1 milligram of morphine – to help relieve her severe pain at 11.45am.
A student nurse was assigned to replace a finished bag of the morphine fluid at around 2pm, when she “erroneously” adjusted the amount of the liquid to 83ml an hour containing 28mg of morphine.