It has been at least a year since my horrible medication error happened, but I am still worried sick over it. I was a brand new nurse at the time, and I was working in the ED with a pt having angioedema from Lisinopril. Had never given Epi except for in codes when given IV. I received a verbal order for 1 of epi IM. I even had the physician beside me at the pyxis telling me to give one of the packages of epi that I was holding in my hand and to give it IM. I even asked him, "you want me to give the whole thing?" he said yes. So I drew up 1mg of the Epi and gave it IM into the patient's thigh.
The physician was a newer one to our hospital, and he assumed the packages were already drawn up for an IM injection. But they were glass vials of 1mg. Seconds later, the physician had put the order in the computer as the standard dose of Epi for an IM injection (0.3 mg)..... It was too late. My knees went weak, I felt the blood leave my face, and my heart dropped. Sickest feeling ever. I cried to the doctor, terrified about what would happen to the patient. My supervisor asked him if he would change his order but he, of course, didn't change his order. I am so worried that the patient will sue. I looked at the Ohio laws, and it says that they have 4 years to file a malpractice lawsuit. I have since left the ED and am now working as a triage nurse in a closed university that offers 24-hour care. I am worried that because I am no longer employed at the hospital that I will be on my own if the patient decides to sue. All my coworkers shared their stories of med errors, and that did help back then. But, here I am still obsessing and worrying that they may still come after me. The patient did have side effects as you can imagine. Tachycardia and tremors. I was so mortified that I didn't tell the patient. The patient and the family were already so high strung I was terrified to say anything. I just stayed in the room monitoring closely. The physician had him admitted to the cardiac unit. I never heard any more about it. I wonder if anyone has ever experienced this before? Has the patient sued a year or years later? What are the chances that they will sue? I know a nurse that gave Epi IV instead of IM... and as far as I know, she was never sued. UGH, its been weighing on me for so long... I wish I could get some answers. Thank you for reading.
