[tri-med] Re: CHLORAL HYDRATE EXPERIENCES/knowledge? important

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Barbara Farlow"
>I stand corrected on the midazolam. It was lorazepam. Lorazepam was ordered 
>q2 and chloral hydrate, q8. Definitely, we were told the chloral was to 
>improve airway tone.

Barb,
I don't think I can say any more than what you already know on this but you 
might like to read about a recent Australian case - Vanessa Anderson.
Short version - Vanessa was a young healthy teenager who was hit in the head 
with a golf ball. She died in hospital after a doctor gave her a CNS 
depressant - in her case it was Endone (a potent form of codeine) on top of 
Panadeine Forte. It was incredibly tragic. Her family had left her in 
hospital overnight and when her dad went in the next morning the nurse told 
him that she had had a bad night but had finally settled - dad went in and 
found that yes she had settled because she had died.

There have been lots of excuses and stories but the coroner after some 18 
months has finally handed down his findings and called for an enquiry. The 
enquiry has been watered down, it should be a royal commission, but they 
know if they did a wide ranging enquiry it would never end and reveal too 
much but my point is the "mistake" was originally covered up and her death 
blamed on the golf ball (and the poor friend who hit the ball) when it was 
really a comedy of errors and finally the medication error which caused her 
death. It took a few people including a few very powerful people pressuring 
behind the scenes to get to the truth with the coroner.

The situation is totally different to Annie's yet in many ways 
similar.........

This is probably moving to off list material but for those interested here 
are a couple of newspaper links to the story. I did a quick search for the 
coronial findings but they arent on their website - they may be on Lawlink 
though so if you want them let me know and I will try and find them for you.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/how-system-fatally-failed-vanessa/2008/01/24/1201025048650.html

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23101470-5006009,00.html

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                                            -- Josh Billings

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