Recently I heard that there was a case when a baby was given a wrong medication. This resulted in death. I was so shocked to hear this. How can this happen when doctors are trained and have been learning all their lives to save lives?
Unfortunately, death caused by a mistake of a doctor is not so rare. However, we need to understand that they are usually pure accidents that happen, accidents that could not have been avoided. It is interesting that mistakes in the use of a medication are one of the best tracked types of medical error. They can occur in hospitals, at the pharmacy, in the doctor's office and even due to the patient. The sad truth is that children and infants are particularly at risk of medication errors. This is mainly due to incorrect dosage, because of the need to modify dosages based on age and weight. The dosage modification can be overlooked or miscalculated which has devastating results and in some cases death. Various studies have shown high error rates in doctors and nurses in calculating weight-dependent dosages. This was especially noticeable in infants and neonates. We need to understand that doctors are not Gods and that they are also prone to mistakes, like any other human being.