Nurse gives relaxing injection to patient. Accidentally injects execution drug. - Sensationalist Headlines

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article222422170.html https://fox17.com/news/local/vanderbilt-nurses-error-that-killed-patient-has-hospitals-medicare-at-risk The nurse intended to order the anti-anxiety drug Versed but instead ordered Vecuronium, a general anesthesia drug used to sedate patients for surgery. It is also part of the drug cocktail used to execute some prisoners through lethal injection, WTVF reported. “After a patient receives a neuromuscular blocker, progressive paralysis develops, initially affecting the small muscle groups such as the face and hands, then moving to larger muscle groups in the extremities and torso until all muscle groups are paralyzed and respiration ceases. However, full consciousness remains intact, and patients can experience intense fear when they can no longer breathe. They can also sense pain. The experience can be horrific for patients,” the report says. The patient was found without a pulse in the PET scanner and was rushed to intensive care, where she died a few days later after going into cardiac arrest. What a terrifying way to die.

now here will be an investigation to behold

How is something like this even possible? The words of the two drugs aren't even that similar.

The fact it was never investigated properly by the hospital is a fine way for them to fuck themselves hard. The sheer number of checks that must have been failed - I was under the impression that you usually have to reconstitute vercuronium? Pretty hard to confuse when midazolam is fine to store as a liquid. Not to mention that verc usually says "paralytic agent" all over the vial... and the dose doesn't check out. Over here, that's a guaranteed nursing license gone, mostly because of the fact they attempted to hide this.

Picture of nurse released: https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/337897/fcbee82d-5895-459f-a8b2-d713965c4b50/image.png

can they not use the fucking proper name of Midazolam....

But "execution drug" gives more clicks!

It seems that nurses all around the world are really overworked to hell, and not just them but the patients suffer for it. Oversights or mistakes happen, but they are only minor 99% of the time. This was one of those 1% cases.

Nurses are ran into the ground with long hours and nearly non-existent OT. EMT's arguably have it better.

I think the first step would be to disallow autocompleting the drug name.

I'm talking about the hospital.. people using the brand name for important drugs instead of the proper name. Nobody is going to confuse midazolam with anything else, but what even is the word "Versed" for a brand of drug, terrible name.

Agreed. I kinda hate how American doctors often use the brand names of drugs when talking about them too, as it's free marketing for drugs companies.

Fun fact: Last time I checked, Apple products weren't recommended for medical use precisely for this reason. They auto-correct drug names into other drug names.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQkxMnO0c6c 00:18 onward.

This Is The One Thing We Didn't Want To Happen

I know it looks like "versed" as in "you are well versed in something" but it's actually pronounced ver-said. TBH I've always wondered how companies come up with names for their drugs, because sometimes it includes the actual chemical name in it, but most of the time it doesn't, and it just seems like a mash of letters.

It depends on the company, the drug, and how clever their naming department is. Sometimes they'll do clever things like include the mechanism of action in the drug name like Namenda which is an NMDA channel blocker, and other times it'll be things that make no sense whatsoever. Ambien for example is AM=morning and bien=good, so it comes out to "good morning", which is relevant for a drug that helps you sleep. There was probably no excuse for this story though since Vecuronium ends in "-curonium" which is a common ending for other neuromuscular blocking agents. Also, of all the hospitals I've been in, all neuromuscular blocking agents are labeled with bright orange flags that say it is a NMBA.

In Britain we have something called Imodium Plus which is for diarrhoea and I often wonder why it's called Plus. Like, is there a regular variant for it when it's liquid and the plus is just for when enough energy released to launch you to the moon? It's all very curious.

It was a general anesthesia drug used for surgery. To say that is is used for execution is misleading. Thats like saying a man was killed in flame retardant after falling into a lake.

I don't like the headline much either but it's not exactly inaccurate to say this drug is also used for executions.

I'm an EMT so I'm bottom of the barrel health care provider tier really, but even we have the Six R's: -Right Drug -Right Dose -Right Route -Right Patient -Right Time -Right Documentation I legitimately don't know how an ALS provider could fuck this up so badly but they should be given some sort of large trophy to take to the prison cell

Well... There was relaxation alright... How do you mix those up anyway?

God I feel horrible for the nurse too

How did they even have that drug? Isn't that supposed to be tightly controlled for obvious reasons.

It was in a secured machine that requires a login unique to each staff member to dispense. It is just a paralytic agent, and as such is really useful in anaesthesia and such. The fact it's used in some executions is just sensationalist.

idk, this seems so hard to mess up. I honestly feel like it's more likely they intentionally murdered this person.

At least in California, EMTs are going to catch up now that they have to constantly remain on-call!

There are a lot of times I've fucked something up by just reading the first few letters, I'd never think it could kill someone.

I’m gonna say the hospital probably has an unhealthy culture of nurses overriding the system (to save time probably), and you have to keep in mind that nurses really aren’t trained in pharmacology the same way doctors are. And like in any other job, not all nurses are equally smart to start with. If this really is a one-off override, and the nurse just decided to play doctor for no reason, then yeah, they’re definitely guilty of at least manslaughter.

God damn it. The patient basically suffocated, not being able to move while crying for air. Dying of asphyxiation may just be the most painful and excruciating way to go.