Safemedicate

  In another saddening reminder of the importance of   addressing the problem of medication error , The New Zealand Herald recently reported on the case of an elderly man who was experiencing seizures, only for nurses to provide him the incorrect medication. As a consequence of the overdose, the patient unfortunately passed away several days later. Levomepromazine mistaken for levetiracetam The newspaper serving the Auckland area of New Zealand reported that the man, in his 90s, was administered three times the recommended dose of levomepromazine, after the drug had been mistaken by two nurses for his prescribed medication, levetiracetam. Following the patient’s death three days later, one of the nurses resigned, stating that she had found it difficult to acknowledge the mistakes she and her co-worker had made, and which had “caused the death” of the patient. A Health and Disability Commissioner (HDC)’s decision, released in May 2023, referred to the patient as “Mr...