State Calls Hospital, Nurses Negligent in Patient Death in Minnesota
State health officials say a Burnsville hospital and its nurses were negligent in the death of a Prior Lake man who received a possibly toxic dose of morphine after elective surgery.
The man, 37-year-old Edward Kyllonen, died suddenly following hip surgery in November 2001. The state released the results of its investigation earlier this week.
While the report says Kyllonen received a high dose of the pain killer morphine, it stops short of blaming the death on the drug.
The Minnesota Health Department found that two nurses at Fairview Ridges Hospital failed to properly monitor Kyllonen as he received morphine and other painkillers following hip surgery. They reportedly administered a total of fifty milligrams of morphine in a 12-hour period, without documenting the dosages, or even asking Kyllonen if he needed more pain medication.
At six o'clock the next morning a lab technician found Kyllonen unconscious, and not breathing.
"We never thought this would ever be the outcome," says Mike Kyllonen, the dead man's younger brother. "The surgery itself, yeah, went fine, he came out of the surgery well."
Investigators also say the hospital and the Dakota County Coroner's Office missed the cause of death-calling it "sudden unexpected death following left hip surgery." Kyllonen's widow sought the investigation by the state's Office of Health Facility Complaints.
State investigators questioned the results of the autopsy results because it showed no morphine in Kyllonen's blood, despite hospital records that show he had received several doses.
A new blood test was ordered. It found Kyllonen's blood had toxic levels of morphine that, according to one medical expert, "probably contributed to his death," the report said. Again, the report stopped short of saying the drugs caused the death.
Kyllonen's family is suing.
"It is basic nursing practice to properly assess a patient before administer any kind of medication," says Kathleen Flynn Peterson, a former nurse and an attorney representing the family. "This was a totally unnecessary death, this tragedy could have been prevented if they would have just followed their own policies and procedures."
