5 week old given overdose of paracetamol in hospital, what will happen to her now?

[mummytowillow]

My 5 week old niece has been in intensive care for three weeks, she had open heart surgery last week and has come on leaps and bounds. She was moved to a cardiac ward yesterday morning, late afternoon my brother gets a phone call from the sister on the ward saying a nurse had given her 10 TIMES the required dose of paracetamol and all hell had broke loose The nurse drew it up and another nurse checked it, put it in the machine, half an hour later it emerged it had been the wrong dose?

They have flushed her out? (not sure what that means? Given her special drugs to counteract the paracetamol and fully admitted it was their mistake and an investigation is taking place, what is most shocking is the ward sister told my brother 'it happens all the time' they brought this up with the consultant this morning and she is under investigation to?

So after that long story, what can my brother and SIL expect to happen to their baby now, what long term consequences could their be? They have had such a tough time since she was born and were all so shocked and upset as she has been through so much in her short life and now this

That is just terrible .

While everything is fresh in your mind make a note of who said what and when.

Happens all the time? WTF.

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

i don't know. Paracetamol is very dangerous. Overdose often results in liver damage. SOmetimes the person who has been overdosed will be OK for a bit after being brought round, flushed etc. but then can go downhill a few days later. how awful

by the way, I only know this from adults who have overdosed, no idea about children but would imagine it could be more serious bc they are smaller?

I really am and upset for your family.

bumping your thread.

I'm so sorry, I don't know what will happen but I have heard on here people saying their DC drank a bottle of calpol and ended up fine (which would be more than 10 times the dose) so that makes me think it might be OK. It probably depends on a lot of different factors. Hope someone will be along soon with some expertise for you.

Fingers crossed she makes a full recovery.

How awful

Fingers crossed it all ends well

What a bloody stupid mistake to make, I'd create hell.

Drug errors do happen a lot I'm afraid.
The medical staff should be talking to your brother and sil about the consequences for your niece and they should be kept fully informed regarding the results of the investigation.

There is an antidote so provided the error was spotted promptly which it seems to have been it is likely they will have been able to successfully treat her. I don't know much more about this (am a vet), especially not in babies, but hopefully your brother and SIL will have the possible consequences explained to them very soon by someone senior.

Marine - this child is a newborn though with already reduced health.

Gosh that is terrible, I'm so sorry.

The impact of severe paracetamol overdose is liver damage IIRC. The problem is that is will be hard to assess what if any damage has been caused, as it is a longer term thing I think?

10x is a lot, but it is not a MEGA overdose if you see what I mean. Many medicines have a big margin of error to cope with accidental overdosing.

I know this because I once worked for a company that makes a well known brand of children's paracetamol medicine .

We once had a product recall because once particular formulation wasn't staying 'suspended' and there was a risk of concentration at the bottom of the bottle (and therefore overdose).

Try not to worry. I'm hopeful that she will be OK - especially if the hospital realised and dealth with it quickly.
x

This is why I didn't become a nurse...I couldn't trust my self never to do something this awful!

For what it's worth, DS drank half a bottle of Calpol when he was 3, and still remained within the "safe" limit.

Not sure how that compares with a 5 week old baby, though.

I really hope all is well.

sorry - meant dealt with it...

christ how awful
hope your niece is ok and they have caught it in time and no long term damage is done

every nurses nightmare

how dreadful,thats is so awful.hard enough being in NICU without accidental od

ok so i suggest
immediate appontment with consultant/SpR for prognosis
make sure incident form IR1 is completed ask for copy
write to clinical governance and hosp chief exec
making a complaint
PALS
get names of staff involved,keep record of dates,times.
ask for her notes under freedom of information
instruct a solicitor
a debrief - ask what support etc is avail to the parents?

long term prognosis they will need to discuss with consultant.they will monitor her very closely

i really do hope this resolves.babies can be remarkably hardy

Bloody hell, that's awful.

I really hope your niece is ok.

Your Brother and SIL must be going through hell

That's really awful - so worrying for your family.

I have absolutely no medical knowledge whatsover, but when DS had an operation at around 3 weeks, I was given some Calpol for afterwards. I was also given the tiniest syringes to administer it with, as the required amount was miniscule. What I am trying to say is that a 10x overdose will still be very tiny - however, I am aware that so is the baby.

I think Calpol, although paracetamol based, has got to be fairly harmless as it is liberally dished out by parents to children all the time. It sounds as if the hospital dealt with it fairly efficiently too, so I am hoping for you all that it will work out well.

This happened to my dd in similar circumstances. She received a 10x overdose of heparin several weeks after open heart surgery. It wasn't immediately realised and she was very lucky that no permanent damage was done.

I'm afraid drug errors do happen quite often.

I do feel for your brother and SIL as it shakes your faith in the team looking after your child.

We didn't make a formal complaint following dd's od - I was very pleased with the way it was handled by the all the staff and happier once the protocols surrounding the prescribing of that particular drug were tightened in the unit.

Mummytowillow - please point your brother in the direction of the message board at Heartline. Loads of support for parents of children with CHD.

Advice from Scottish Mummy is similar to what I was about to post - very important to follow this up the right way and LO parents probably too shocked still to do this at moment so having you write it down for them is important. Friend (nurse) recently lost her aunt after a hospital error/incident and she said the most important thing after the prognosis was an apology from Consultant,make sure they speak to either the consultant or specialist registrar not a junior doctor.
My thoughts are with you and your family.

mummytowillow - sorry, should have said - if the baby has an ng tube and the paracetamol went down the tube they can flush and retrieve the stomach contents fairly easily so hopefully not too much was absorbed.

My friend's DS managed to open a bottle of calpol - friend panicked and rang NHS Direct before thinking to smell his breath and realising that he probably hadn't had any at all. Apparently the nurse on the phone was very reassuring and said that for some reason which they don't know, children and babies don't seem to react to paracetamol overdose like adults do, it doesn't seem to affect them as severely. Of course they are still careful to do the flushing etc just in case, but she said that it was quite rare for a child to be harmed by it.

Please try not to worry. I worked in A&E and we dealt with paracetamol overdoses all the time. Yes, they can be fatal, but only if not treated. This mistake was picked up quickly thank heavens and from what you say it sounds like an antidote was given. They have no doubt done blood tests to see what was absorbed, and will continue to test the liver function to ensure no permanent damage was done.
Having dealt with some massive overdoses, provided the antidote was started within a matter of hours it will rid the body of all the paracetamol and patients make a full recovery.
I'm sure your niece will be fine, and her parents will be given full explanations and reassurances....and grovelling apologies!