Catastrophic ‘Pharmacy Error’ Leaves Multiple Patients Paralyzed After Wrong Drug Injected Into Spines
by Frank Bergman
A Tennessee hospital has admitted that a catastrophic “pharmacy error” caused four patients undergoing routine joint-replacement surgery to be injected in the spine with the wrong drug, leaving them paralyzed.
Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown in Nashville confirmed that the patients received potassium phosphate instead of an anesthetic on August 14.
All four suffered serious adverse reactions.
One patient, 72-year-old Glenda Dorton, has reportedly been left paralyzed from the chest down, while another patient was placed on a ventilator.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and state health regulators have now opened investigations into how such a devastating mistake was allowed to happen.
Wrong Drug Sent Into Patients’ Spines
Ascension Saint Thomas said the error originated inside the hospital’s pharmacy.
According to the hospital, four patients undergoing joint replacements were supposed to receive mepivacaine as an anesthetic.
Instead, they were given potassium phosphate.
All four required immediate medical treatment after suffering adverse reactions.
Dorton’s family gave local reporters a slightly different account, saying she was supposed to receive bupivacaine during spinal anesthesia for a knee replacement but was instead given potassium.
The difference between the hospital’s identification of mepivacaine and the family’s reference to bupivacaine has not yet been publicly explained.
Both accounts agree on the central fact: a potassium compound was injected into the spinal space instead of the intended numbing medication.
Medical specialists have warned that potassium salts should never be administered into the spinal space because they can severely damage nerve tissue.
One surgeon who was not involved in the case described the effect as the drug essentially destroying the spinal cord.
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