Toddler Dies After Heparin Drug Overdose
Posted By
on Jul 11, 2011 9:52am PDT
Tuesday the parents of a toddler who died after a hospital medication error filed suit against the Nebraska Medical Center where she was treated. The
Omaha World Herald reported Almariah Izabel Duque died in March of 2010 before her second birthday of a
drug overdose
. She was prescribed heparin, a blood thinner, while undergoing kidney dialysis. She died after receiving 10 times the amount of heparin she should have.
The suit alleges the heparin infusion pump was programmed incorrectly. The hospital medication mistake was not noticed for five hours. The drug overdose caused Almariah's blood to become too thin. Consequently, Almariah developed a bleed in her brain causing her death two days later.
Unfortunately heparin overdose is one of the most common medication mistakes and often occurs with children. The most famous example involved a heparin overdose of the children of actor Dennis Quiad. You can read more about it in this previous heparin overdose blog post.
Almariah's parents have been quoted as saying, "There's no good in being angry. The only thing we want are answers." As a Florida medication error attorney, I know how important it is for families to have closure after a hospital or
doctor drug mistake.