Cancer patient wrongly given drugs for alcoholism
Hospital unable to identify which doctor had prescribed medication
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Your support makes all the difference.A hospital wrongly gave a cancer patient medication for alcoholism, even though she had not drunk in 10 years.
Her family complained that the two drugs made her so drowsy before she died that they missed precious time with her, according to a report by Ireland’s ombudsman.
Peter Tyndall said “the biggest worry” was that the hospital was unable to say which doctor had prescribed the medication.
Bosses at the Mater Hospital in Dublin were “asked to tighten up the way they dealt with that”, The Irish Times reported.
An ultrasound confirmed that the woman, identified only as Norah, had liver cancer.
She had gone to the emergency department with severe pains and jaundice.
“While giving her medical history to the hospital, she made clear she did not drink alcohol,” the report said.
When Norah’s family spoke nurses about her drowsiness, a doctor reviewed her and halted the medication. She died shortly afterwards.
The hospital acknowledged she was wrongly prescribed the medications, made a written apology to the family and said it was introducing an education programme for staff.
Mr Tyndall said greater efforts should have been made at that time to identify the doctor, rather than when the complaint was received.
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