Patient dies after drug error

The hospital has begun an internal investigation

A patient who was wrongly injected with local anaesthetic into a vein rather than the spine has died, Brighton NHS Trust has confirmed.

The patient died at 6am Saturday morning after being in intensive care at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton for three days.

The incident happened on Wednesday during major surgery for an abdominal aortic aneurysm, a weakness in one of the body's largest blood vessels.

I apologise unreservedly to the family for this error and offer them my deepest sympathy

Stuart Welling, Hospital trust chief executive

Stuart Welling, chief executive of Brighton Health Care Trust said: "Sadly it has proved impossible to save the patient and they died at 6am this morning.

"I apologise unreservedly to the family for this error and offer them my deepest sympathy."

Shadow health secretary Dr Liam Fox has warned people not to panic following the incident.

"It the death is a tragedy in itself and we need to make sure that the procedures being used are safe - obviously it is sensible for the Royal College of Anaesthetists to launch an inquiry," he said.

"We need to make sure if this is something that is happening more often or whether it is just being brought to the public's attention by the media.

"But what we must not do is make a panic response that gets people worried about health care."

'Serious error'

No details have been given of the patient at the request of the family.

The doctor concerned has been suspended while an investigation takes place.

A hospital spokesman said: "The consultant was asked to go away for the weekend to keep out of the press."

The anaesthetic drug Bupivicaine should have been delivered into the spine after the operation.

Instead, a doctor described by the hospital as a "senior and experienced consultant" injected the drug into a vein.

Mr Welling has already confirmed that an internal investigation was underway into the "serious error" in the administration of a local anaesthetic.

Vincristine

And the hospital trust has also called for a separate, independent review by the Royal College of Anaesthetists.

Complications are rare with epidurals which routinely given to patients after operations.

Doctors can give patients large doses of local anaesthetic through epidurals.

A needle is inserted into the spine and passed through a tiny catheter into the epidural space in the back.

But there is a danger that the catheter could be injected into one of the many veins surrounding the area.

We need to make sure if this is something that is happening more often

Dr Liam Fox

If that happens, the large amounts of anaesthetic involved can stop the heart.

This latest tragedy follows the death last week of 18-year-old Wayne Jowett, who died after the cancer drug vincristine was injected into his spine by mistake at a Nottingham hospital.

The teenager died just 24 hours after an inquest into the death of a female patient who took eight years to die after being injected with vincristine in the spine.

Donna Horn, 15, of Wellingborough Northamptonshire died eight years after a hospital mistake left her paralysed from the neck down.

The same mistake has been made in UK hospitals on 13 occasions over the last 15 years.