Hospital plasters little girl's wrong arm

Martin Halfpenny,Pa
Friday 27 August 2010 10:17 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

A hospital apologised today and launched an investigation after medical staff plastered the wrong arm of a two-year-old girl.

Honey Wight was taken to the accident and emergency department of Southampton General Hospital on Wednesday by mother Katie after she jumped off a slide and hurt her left arm.

Medics X-rayed the arm and found the youngster had chipped a bone. Nurses then plastered the right arm and sent the family home.

Ms Wight, 29, said she did not notice the mistake until the next day because her daughter fell asleep in the car and she put her straight to bed.

"I was so angry. I just couldn't believe it," she told the Southern Daily Echo.

"The nurse was there and it said 'left elbow' but she put it on the right arm. It is just crazy.

"I did not even notice. I was busy singing songs to her, trying to distract her."

The mother said that staff even plastered the correct left arm of Honey's teddy bear to help calm her nerves.

She took her daughter to the hospital yesterday, where the mistake was corrected.

Dr Michael Marsh, the hospital's medical director, said: "We are deeply sorry to Honey and her family. Incidents like this are extremely rare and we will be carrying out a full investigation into how it happened."

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in