A 65-year old cancer patient died in an Oregon hospital shortly after being given the wrong medicine. Apparently, she was given a medicine that caused paralysis instead of a medicine to stop her seizures.
Loretta Macpherson, 65, died shortly after being given the wrong medicine which was a paralyzing agent that is usually used during operations or surgeries instead of an anti-seizure medication in a hospital in Bend, Oregon.
According to Michel Boileau, chief clinical officer for St. Charles Health System, Macpherson was paralyzed causing her breathing to stop, brain damage and cardiac arrest last Wednesday. The cancer patient was admitted in the emergency room two days earlier with questions about her medication dosage after she underwent brain surgery recently.
The son of the cancer patient told News 21 that his mother was taken off life support and succumbed to the adverse effects of the wrong medication last Wednesday. Macpherson was recovering from brain surgery that removed her brain tumor at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle in November.
The son added that she had a fast recovery. He moved her near him to help with her care and recalled that she was doing very well. The patient is an interior designer for nearly 25 years in Newport.
He will confirm if he will file legal actions against the hospital and he also wants to make sure that the experience will not happen to other patients again. Three employees were involved with the incident and they were placed on paid leave. The hospital officials are conducting an investigation and are baffled on how the error happened.
Accordingly, Deschutes County District Attorney Patrick Flaherty told News 21 in an e-mail that in all accidental deaths, the law requires a death investigation.