Cancer patients died after overdose at Birmingham hospital
13 Feb 2009
Two cancer patients died after medical staff mistakenly gave them five times the normal dose of the drug Amphotericin.
Paul Richards and Baljit Singh Sunner were both given the overdose at Heartlands Hospital in Birmingham and died within hours.
An inquest jury returned a verdict of accidental death, to which neglect contributed.
The inquest was told that Fungizone, the original form of Amphotericin is prescribed in line with the patient’s weight at one milligram per kg. More modern forms have dosages of three and five milligrams per kg. Nurses mistakenly admitted the wrong form of the drug to the two men.
The families of the two men released a statement saying the National Patient Safety Agency had been “slow to react” to reports of the same error happening in Canada and the US.
They added: “Serious questions must now be asked by the Department of Health, the National Patient Safety Agency and at all levels in the NHS why there was a delay in dealing with these risks.”
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