If you have a good defense on your side, a nurse attorney can provide excellent assistance. There are cases where some nurses might commit unexpected medical errors while on duty.
At the time of the initial incident, an RN was employed as a Registered Nurse at a hospital in Dallas, Texas, and had been in that position for two (2) years and seven (7) months.
On or about January 22, 2021, while employed as a Registered Nurse, the RN entered a verbal order to discontinue 2 mg Dilaudid by mouth (PO) and change to 2mg Dilaudid intravenous for the patient, without questioning or clarifying the high dosage with the physician. The dose was in excess of the normal IV dose for an elderly patient with reduced kidney function. Subsequently, the RN administered the medication to the patient, who then became bradycardic and coded approximately six minutes later, and ultimately expired on January 25, 2021, from cardiac arrest/post-code blue complications. The RN’s conduct was likely to injure the patient from adverse effects due to possible overdosage of narcotic medication, including respiratory depression, bradycardia, apnea, and cardiac arrest.
In response to the incident, the RN states that the patient’s primary care team had discontinued pain medications ordered by the surgeon. The RN states that she asked the patient about it and was told that they discontinued and switched the medications based on the patient’s kidney function. The RN states that she opened up the chart and showed the patient the order which reflected Dilaudid 2 mg PO, and the patient clarified by removing his mask to make sure she could understand him and said that was incorrect, he wanted the medication IV. The RN states that she asked the patient if he wanted the medication IV instead of PO and the same milligrams which he confirmed yes, he did want her to change the order.
In addition, the RN then entered the verbal order into the computer. The RN states that later, the patient reported pain, so she checked the patient’s vital signs and administered the IV Dilaudid for over 2 minutes. And also states that the patient reported relief from her pain, so the RN went to check her other patients. Not long after that, the RN states that she was called by the emergency telemetry line and was told that the patient’s heart rate was dropping critically low. The RN states that she ran to the room and found the patient unresponsive, with no pulse; staff arrived with the crash cart and The RN administered Narcan. They obtained the return of circulation and transferred the patient to the intensive care unit.
However, she was not able to provide a good defense for herself, especially when the drug screening results were brought up to her. Therefore, the Board placed her license to a disciplinary action instead.
If you also received a letter from the Texas Board of Nursing regarding a case or complaint filed against you, you should hire a nurse attorney immediately before it’s too late. Texas nurse attorney Yong J. An is one of those dedicated nurse lawyers who helped various nurses in their cases since 2006. You may contact him 24/7 at (832) 428-5679 for more information or if you want to schedule a private consultation.