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Tennessee Conservative News [By Olivia Lupia] –
On August 14, four patients receiving routine surgeries at Nashville’s Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown allegedly had the wrong drug injected, causing three patients to be injured and at least one to become paralyzed.
After initially calling the mistake an unspecified “event”, last Friday the hospital acknowledged it was a “medication error” in its pharmacy that led to the patients receiving potassium phosphate injections instead of the regular anesthetic, causing “adverse health reactions.”
72-year-old Glenda Dorton seems to have suffered the worst effect, coming into St. Thomas for a knee replacement and ending up paralyzed from the chest down. Her family says she was supposed to receive a local anesthetic through a spinal epidural before surgery, but was instead administered potassium chloride, causing immense damage.
Though the knee replacement itself seemed to have gone well, upon waking in recovery Dorton told her family she was itching, felt as though her body was burning, and could not feel her legs. She was transferred to another Ascension St. Thomas hospital, where doctors placed her on a ventilator, drained spinal fluid to remove excess potassium, and administered high-dose steroids in an effort to reverse the damage.
The ventilator was removed the following day, but Dorton was still unable to move her lower body of feel anything from her breastbone down and reportedly remains in the ICU.
“The joint replacement went wonderful. Her knee is great. The rest of her is not,” said Dorton’s daughter-in-law Kristina. “It was supposed to be the anesthetic. It was supposed to be bupivacaine, and it was potassium, and we don’t know what quantity. We don’t know what recovery looks like or if there is recovery.”
The hospital is not providing many details or confirming whether all four patients experienced the same medicinal mix up or how it occurred, only stating that once the complications were discovered the incidents were self-reported per state law and “corrective safeguards” have been implemented.
Hospital President and CEO Dr. Shubhada Jagasia released a statement reading, in part, “On behalf of our leadership and care teams, I am deeply sorry for the harm caused to our patients. We have met directly with each of the families to express our deep support, connected them with spiritual care teams, and ensured they have access to all appropriate resources and ongoing care needed…The day of the event, we self-reported to state regulators and launched a thorough investigation. We identified the cause and have implemented corrective safeguards… We hold the privacy of our patients in the highest regard and will not provide any specific clinical details.”
While unconfirmed, other circulating reports claim that a second patient is paralyzed while at least one other is critically ill. Dorton’s family is reportedly speaking with an attorney, though Kristina Dorton said the family is grateful for transparent communication from the hospital and that they have no reason to believe the injury was intentionally caused by a rogue employee.
“We’re not looking to ruin somebody’s life,” she said. “They need to figure it out so it never happens [again].”
But others are not taking such a generous tone, with many Tennesseans calling for lawsuits and expressing frustration about the seeming lack of answers from the hospital.
Country music star John Rich wrote on social media, “How much do you wanna bet that the idiots who did this graduated at the bottom of their class, and probably can’t do 8th grade math? This is absolutely horrible. Should be a billion dollar lawsuit.”
Another user said, “My guess is that this was a communication breakdown with non or very little-English speaking staffers. And if so, we will NEVER hear about it.”
After receiving complaints, the Tennessee Health Facilities Commission is investigating Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has opened its own separate investigation, though neither agency has detailed exactly what their investigations will entail, only saying they are “active and ongoing”.
Sources:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/tennessee-woman-left-paralyzed-hospital-115458887.html
https://twitter.com/CBSEveningNews/status/2090588073255968968
https://twitter.com/johnrich/status/2091217828728725853?s=46
https://twitter.com/BestNashTransit/status/2090066583318065442
About the Author: Olivia Lupia is a political refugee from Colorado who now calls Tennessee home. A proud follower of Christ, she views all political happenings through a Biblical lens and aims to utilize her knowledge and experience to educate and equip others. Olivia is an outspoken conservative who has run for local office, managed campaigns, and been highly involved with state & local GOPs, state legislatures, and other grassroots organizations and movements. Olivia can be reached at olivia@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
