Friday 27 August 2010

"Hospital put plaster cast on child's wrong arm"

Hospital staff at Southampton General have issued an apology after medics plastered the wrong arm of a two-year old. Toddler, Honey Wight, chipped a bone in her left elbow after she jumped off a slide. However, for reasons unknown, medical staff in A and E plastered Honey's right arm.
 
The youngster's mum, Ms Wight, told the Southern Daily Echo; "I was so angry. I just couldn't believe it." The twenty-nine year old continued; "The nurse was there and it said 'left elbow' but she put it on the right arm. It is just crazy."
 
Ms Wight, who realised the medical mishap the next day, having put her daughter straight to bed after her eventful time, returned to Southampton hospital the next day where the mistake was rectified.
 
Dr Michael Marsh, medical director at the hospital, said: "We are deeply sorry to Honey and her family. Incidents like this are extremely rare and we will be carrying out a full investigation into how it happened."
 
Source: The Metro

3 comments:

Brian, follower of Deornoth said...

Since officials have such a hard time distinguishing between their elbows and some other portions of their anatomy, it's not really to be wondered at that they can't distinguish between the left elbow and the right.

scottish73 said...

Understand the criticism directed at the hospital - but if my wee girl had been complaining of a sore left arm, I would have noticed that they had plastered the right one (or the wrong one as it turns out....).

Just a thought.

subrosa said...

Surely the mother was present when the plaster was being applied? It took her a day to see the error? Think the mother has more problems than the nurse who obviously made an error.