A Woman’s Death Exposes “Careless Mistakes” at Local Hospital
With a deteriorating state, severe sepsis, and bleeding in the brain, one could think she had mere hours to live. It seemed as if there was still hope as she was quickly rushed to the emergency room, the de facto answer to those in dire medical need. However, this wasn’t the case for the 75-year old woman who had arrived at the Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center on Dec. 2, 2019.
She was killed by a botched blood transfusion for anemia during her time at the hospital. According to records, she was given the wrong blood type during the transfusion thus leading to her blood pressure plunging and four cardiac arrests.
In response to the incident, the hospital staff was forced to place her under life support. Her family later decided to stop any further care and the patient passed on Dec. 3, 25 hours after her arrival at the hospital.
“This is a challenging time for our hospital,” Baylor St. Luke’s president Doug Lawson said. “While we cannot go back and change the past, we can focus our efforts on recreating the Baylor St. Luke’s you have known and trusted.”
Lawson has recently stated that the hospital is taking several steps to improve the quality of patient care. According to Lawson, dozens of mistakes have been discovered from the months of September through December. These mistakes include 122 issues with blood labels.
“To our patients, their families, our employees and physicians, and the people of this city and region we serve, we will take the steps needed to ensure Baylor St. Luke’s fulfills our mission of care and compassion,” Lawson said. “I believe we will emerge stronger than ever.”
Here is the full letter given by Lawson over the latest events.
What Does This Mean for Students?
Moreover, this has been a learning opportunity for some Cain medical students as they begin to uncover more about the real world industry. The consequences of decisions likely to soon be facing students in the Klein Nursing Pathway are very real. Some already realize what incidents can spiral out of control if poor care is given to patients at even the most basic levels and the heavy risk of casualties.
“Being a student that wants to be a future medical professional, incidents like these bring my attention to how each position in the medical field requires great attention and investment to the patients,” Haley Baldwin said. “Patient care in the hospital is very critical no matter what their illness may be.”
Baldwin was shocked to hear the news and is hoping her friends will learn from the incident. Furthermore, she hopes that her friends take this into consideration of how dangerous one’s actions could be.
“…it encourages me to connect with my future patients, and fellow team members to make sure that the patients obtain the best care possible,” Baldwin said.
