The prosecution requested an 18-month suspended prison sentence on Monday against a nurse from the Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille (AP-HM), tried for involuntary manslaughter after administering 1,000 times the prescribed dose of adrenaline to a patient.
Admitted on September 5, 2017 to the rheumatology department of the Sainte-Marguerite day hospital, the 47-year-old victim was due to undergo a fifth injection to treat rheumatoid arthritis. After an allergic episode, she suffered an anaphylactic shock, which was quickly treated by an intern supervised by a senior physician.
20 micrograms
Based on the protocol established for this type of situation, the intern had prescribed an injection of 20 micrograms of adrenaline. But the nurse, who had arrived a few months earlier (after her department had closed in another AP-HM establishment), had administered 20 milligrams, or 1,000 times more, in this case the four 5-milligram vials on the emergency trolley.
The patient was transferred to intensive care, the dosage error was only revealed the next day. The woman died on September 9.
Now retired, the nurse maintained before the Marseille criminal court that she had heard the intern talk about milligrams, but for the head of department, this dosage “cannot exist”, the recommended dose in the event of cardiac arrest being one milligram.
Asked “what dosage would have seemed fatal to her”, the defendant replied that she did not know, having never used adrenaline before in her career. “I was told hurry up, hurry up! ».
“She killed my wife”
“If you are prescribed a kilo of Doliprane instead of a gram, won’t that bother you, even you, a layman?” asked the victim’s partner. A cancer nurse trainer himself, he showed the court a syringe, showing the “astronomical” amount administered. “That’s not worthy of a nurse,” he lamented. “She killed my wife, it’s normal that she’s here.”
“There is no evidence to suggest that doctors would protect themselves and blame the nurses,” said prosecutor Michel Sastre, requesting “a significant sentence” of 18 months in prison, suspended. According to the magistrate, “if the nurse has any doubts about the prescription, he checks it with the person who wrote it.” Calling for an acquittal, the nurse’s lawyer, Philippe Bonfils, argued that his client “is not trying to dodge anything, unlike the AP-HM, which wants to absolve itself of its responsibility.”
The judgment will be delivered on September 9.
