Patient transfused with wrong blood type considered “brain dead”

Tragic development in the case of a patient in a public hospital who received a blood transfusion with wrong type of blood. The health situation of the 62-year-old woman has deteriorated rapidly almost a month after the incident and is considered by the doctors as “brain dead”.

Her children have given the green light for organs donation, however further tests are required to check if her organs are suitable for transplant as well as double checks on her brain function, healthreport.gr reported.

The transfusion on June 4 was performed by the 30-year-old nurse assistant, who is accused of  “medical error”.

The assistant was not under the supervision of a doctor and a secondary-level nurse, as the protocol stipulates, according to the family’s lawyer.

The tragic error is attributed to a violation of protocols and safety controls.

Instead of giving the unit of blood to a woman who was hospitalized in an adjacent bed, the nurse administered the blood to the 62-year-old, who was to be admitted to the operating room a little later and was not in fact in need of transfusion before the surgery.

The blood the nurse assistant mistakenly transfused her with was from a different blood type group than the patient’s, causing the 62-year-old to suffer hemolysis and collapse and multiple brain strokes.

Right after the incident, the Health Ministry and the hospital Tzanio in Piraeus ordered a fast track thorough report on the causes of the “error”. According to the official report, among the causes were

• Human factor
• Non-systematic staff training
• Absence of distinction of responsibilities and roles among nurses
• Non-compliance with the protocol
• Inability to double identify during the blood transfusion process
• Incorrect practice of identifying a patient by bed number
• Equipment failure that led to identification through bracelets
• Staff fatigue due to workload

Following the incident, the Ministry of Health, as announced by Adonis Georgiadis, is proceeding with tightening the transfusion protocol, adding more safety measures to avoid similar incidents.

Friends who have been hospitalized since then, have reported that there is always a double identification check before any medication is administered in several different hospital departments.