Wash. Woman Dies After Cleaning Fluid Injection

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Specializes in ICU.

Full story http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=6913177

Wash. Woman Dies After Cleaning Fluid Injection

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 69-year-old woman who was accidentally injected with a toxic cleaning fluid as she was prepared for surgery at a Seattle area medical center has died as a result, hospital officials said on Wednesday.

Doctors had worked intensively to save the woman since she was mistakenly injected with the solution on Nov. 4, a spokeswoman for Virginia Mason Medical Center said, but were unable to save her.

McClinton was supposed to be injected with a contrast dye to assist in a radiology procedure, but instead was accidentally given a cleansing fluid typically used to prepare the exterior of the body for surgery. Both are clear liquids. The spokeswoman said policies at the hospital had been changed so that the cleansing solution would not be mistaken for the dye again.

::snip::

McClinton was supposed to be injected with a contrast dye to assist in a radiology procedure, but instead was accidentally given a cleansing fluid typically used to prepare the exterior of the body for surgery. Both are clear liquids. The spokeswoman said policies at the hospital had been changed so that the cleansing solution would not be mistaken for the dye again.

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Specializes in Med/Surg.

Oh my god....it's events like this that make me wake up in a cold sweat some nights..I can not imagine how whoever administered that to her will live with themselves...

Kacy

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OMG-

I don't understand how this happened. Both the drug and the cleaning fluids were clear, but I don't think the body cleaning fluid would have been in any container accessable by needle.

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Specializes in LPN.

I would have to agree

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

My only question, why are cleaning fluid and medications stored anywhere near the same area?

Ben

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i bet someone is going to go back to using regular colored iodine...seems like one of these horror stories happens every 5 years or so...some one gets this bright idea of placing to products entirely different side by side just asking for a mistake to happen...so sad for what happened to this woman .

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How horrible. That poor woman. I simply can't imagine how, not only were meds and cleaning solutions placed, apparently, side by side, but how could one mistake a cleaning solution as a medication? Just seems a bit far fetched to me.

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Was this really a mistake?

I've worked in surgery before and I've NEVER heard of any skin prep solution that's kept in a SYRINGE.

Sounds fishy to me....Angel of Death anyone?

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Specializes in ICU.

I don't know about the USA but here Radiographers (X-ray techs) can give contrast because it is not covered under the therapuetic goods act because it has no therapuetic outcome. And then this happens and they wonder why we nurses kick up a fuss about it.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
OMG-

I don't understand how this happened. Both the drug and the cleaning fluids were clear, but I don't think the body cleaning fluid would have been in any container accessable by needle.

I was asking myself the same thing. I'm not sure how contrast dye is given. But obviously there is a way to draw it up with a syringe.

Tragic nonetheless. What a nightmare.

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I was asking myself the same thing. I'm not sure how contrast dye is giving. But obviously there is a way to draw it up with a syringe.

Tragic nonetheless. What a nightmare.

I was saying that the cleaner would not be in a container accessable by syringe.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.
I was saying that the cleaner would not be in a container accessable by syringe.

Me too, in a round about way. sorry.

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