Treated by the Marseille hospital, a 20-month-old baby received more than 6 times the dose of his medicine, according to information from France Bleu Provence.
A simple conversion error that could have been fatal. Nilo, a 20 month old baby with a brain tumor, is being treated with beta blockers and Depakine to improve the effectiveness of his chemotherapy. But Friday, October 27, his parents bring him urgently to the Timone hospital in Marseille because each dose of his treatment plunges him into a particularly worrying comatose state. “Nilo fell asleep almost immediately after taking his medication”, explains his father to France Bleu Provence. The intern, who made the prescription, would in fact have made an error in converting between milligrams and milliliters. Result, more than 6.5 times the dose of Depakine normally prescribed and an emergency stomach lavage to save the child.
The parents had however tried to sound the alarm: “We called the hospital to see if there was any error but the intern took us down and almost sent us for a walk, telling us that it was the right mix, ”explains Nilo’s father.
Staphylococcus aureus in August 2017
Released on Sunday, October 29 from the hospital, Nilo could develop complications in the liver and kidneys because of the overdose. The parents lodged a complaint with the Gardanne gendarmerie, asking for guarantees from the hospital.
This is not the first medical error this family has experienced. In August 2017, little Nilo had already contracted Staphylococcus aureus during an operation. “You have to see in what condition certain services are,” the father told France Bleu Provence, “the staff do not have enough time to take good care of everyone, the dressings are sometimes done in any way. We even saw cockroaches in the hospital ”.
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