MISTAKES ARE TO BE LEARNT FROM….

A lesson that one London Hospital has learnt this week is that mistakes can sometimes have catastrophic consequences.

On Monday, the High Court approved a settlement for Great Ormond Street Hospital to pay, 13 year old girl  Maisha Najeed, a lump sum payment of £2.8 million together with periodical payments of £383,000 per annum until her 19th birthday, following which such payments will increase to £423,000 for as long as she lives.

Maisha was under the care of Great Ormond Street Hospital receiving embolisation treatment for a rare congenital condition called Arterio-Venous Malformation.

Arterio-Venous Malformation is a condition that involves the tangulation of arteries and veins which could result in a bleed and can be treated by injection of glue to block off the bleeding blood vessels and an injection of dye used to check the flow of blood around the brain and head.

Unfortunately, on the day of one of these treatments, the syringes were mixed up and glue was mistakenly injected into the artery to Maisha’s brain.  As a result Maisha suffered catastrophic and permanent brain injury.

Perhaps what is most tragic about this case, is that the mix up could easily have been avoided if the syringes been marked as to which syringe contained the glue and which contained the dye.  Had this of been the case the error would not have occurred.

Whilst financial settlement can go some way to ensuring that Maisha receives the care she needs it will never compensate for her loss of health.

It is clear that this is one mistake that MUST be learnt from.