So world class you need to stay in hospital for longer periods of time!!
Two patients got days' worth of cancer drugs in hours
Mistake at KK Hospital leaves one of them in a potentially serious state
By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
HUMAN error at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) led to two cancer patients being given more chemotherapy drugs than they were supposed to get.
They had the drugs injected into them in a matter of hours instead of over several days. One of them is now in a potentially serious situation.
She has been given an antidote to counteract the effects of the overdose, but it will be at least a couple of weeks before doctors can tell whether any of her organs have been damaged by the highly toxic drugs in her bloodstream.
The other patient has escaped a life-threatening situation because the chemotherapy drug she was given happened to be one that could be administered in a rapid dose; her doctor had opted to put her on a slow drip to minimise the side effects.
Both women are now in hospital.
KKH takes full responsibility for the human error in both cases, said Dr Kenneth Kwek, who chairs the hospital's medical board.
The mistake, which occurred last Friday, came to light when the alarm went off on the infusion pump hooked up to Mrs L. K. Ng, 51.
Three days' supply of the drug had been pumped into her in just three hours.
She had already undergone surgery to remove the tumour in her womb, and the chemotherapy was supposed to wipe out lingering cancerous cells.
Last week, in the third of her six scheduled chemotherapy sessions, she spent six hours in hospital for one chemotherapy drug. She was then sent home with the infusion pump, which should have slowly released a second drug into her over three days.
When the container in the pump emptied out in three hours, she called the KKH hotline and was told to return to the hospital immediately.
'She did absolutely the right thing,' said Dr Kwek. Her call alerted the hospital that something was wrong.
Although it was already 10.40pm, the hospital checked on Mrs Yip Poh Hung, 44, the only other patient sent home with an infusion pump that day.
When they found that her container with five days' worth of a drug was empty after five hours, they asked her to also return to the hospital immediately.
Mrs Yip, a mother of two with early cervical cancer, is in graver danger because the drug she received could seriously damage her organs, said Dr Kwek.
Five doctors returned to the hospital on Friday night and pored over the available literature on what could be done to neutralise the overdose.
They found a new medication - still being tested and only available in Maryland in the United States - that could do the job. They contacted the manufacturer on Saturday morning and obtained clearance from the Health Sciences Authority to use it.
Mrs Yip was on the antidote by Sunday afternoon. She will need to take 20 doses of the medicine over five days and has to be observed in the coming weeks.
She has been stable so far.
Asked how such a thing could happen, Dr Kwek said investigations are still going on, but he said the error was human, not mechanical. The pumps were wrongly programmed.
The pharmacist who programmed them had mixed up the calibration, so doses for three and five days became set for three and five hours. Although a second pharmacist checked the pumps, the mistake slipped through unnoticed.
'We're taking this very seriously,' he said.
KKH has reported both cases to the Ministry of Health.
Mrs Yip said a pharmacist visited her twice in the ward to apologise.
When her husband, taxi driver Yip Yew Keong, visited her the morning after her admission, Dr Y. K. Lim - her oncologist - held him with both hands and said: 'The situation is not good. There might be some difficulty.'
With Mrs Yip in a stable condition for now, Mr Yip said he did not want the people involved to get into trouble, since errors do occur.
He said: 'So long as they can fix what has been broken, we'll be happy.'
Two patients got days' worth of cancer drugs in hours
Mistake at KK Hospital leaves one of them in a potentially serious state
By Salma Khalik, Health Correspondent
HUMAN error at KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) led to two cancer patients being given more chemotherapy drugs than they were supposed to get.
They had the drugs injected into them in a matter of hours instead of over several days. One of them is now in a potentially serious situation.
She has been given an antidote to counteract the effects of the overdose, but it will be at least a couple of weeks before doctors can tell whether any of her organs have been damaged by the highly toxic drugs in her bloodstream.
The other patient has escaped a life-threatening situation because the chemotherapy drug she was given happened to be one that could be administered in a rapid dose; her doctor had opted to put her on a slow drip to minimise the side effects.
Both women are now in hospital.
KKH takes full responsibility for the human error in both cases, said Dr Kenneth Kwek, who chairs the hospital's medical board.
The mistake, which occurred last Friday, came to light when the alarm went off on the infusion pump hooked up to Mrs L. K. Ng, 51.
Three days' supply of the drug had been pumped into her in just three hours.
She had already undergone surgery to remove the tumour in her womb, and the chemotherapy was supposed to wipe out lingering cancerous cells.
Last week, in the third of her six scheduled chemotherapy sessions, she spent six hours in hospital for one chemotherapy drug. She was then sent home with the infusion pump, which should have slowly released a second drug into her over three days.
When the container in the pump emptied out in three hours, she called the KKH hotline and was told to return to the hospital immediately.
'She did absolutely the right thing,' said Dr Kwek. Her call alerted the hospital that something was wrong.
Although it was already 10.40pm, the hospital checked on Mrs Yip Poh Hung, 44, the only other patient sent home with an infusion pump that day.
When they found that her container with five days' worth of a drug was empty after five hours, they asked her to also return to the hospital immediately.
Mrs Yip, a mother of two with early cervical cancer, is in graver danger because the drug she received could seriously damage her organs, said Dr Kwek.
Five doctors returned to the hospital on Friday night and pored over the available literature on what could be done to neutralise the overdose.
They found a new medication - still being tested and only available in Maryland in the United States - that could do the job. They contacted the manufacturer on Saturday morning and obtained clearance from the Health Sciences Authority to use it.
Mrs Yip was on the antidote by Sunday afternoon. She will need to take 20 doses of the medicine over five days and has to be observed in the coming weeks.
She has been stable so far.
Asked how such a thing could happen, Dr Kwek said investigations are still going on, but he said the error was human, not mechanical. The pumps were wrongly programmed.
The pharmacist who programmed them had mixed up the calibration, so doses for three and five days became set for three and five hours. Although a second pharmacist checked the pumps, the mistake slipped through unnoticed.
'We're taking this very seriously,' he said.
KKH has reported both cases to the Ministry of Health.
Mrs Yip said a pharmacist visited her twice in the ward to apologise.
When her husband, taxi driver Yip Yew Keong, visited her the morning after her admission, Dr Y. K. Lim - her oncologist - held him with both hands and said: 'The situation is not good. There might be some difficulty.'
With Mrs Yip in a stable condition for now, Mr Yip said he did not want the people involved to get into trouble, since errors do occur.
He said: 'So long as they can fix what has been broken, we'll be happy.'
