My feeling is that mcg is easier to confuse with mg than μg is. The FDA
mandates using mcg for microgram, however.
What I do not know about this case is whether the pharmacist was reading
a handwritten Rx or one that was electronically generated. And I do not
know whether mcg or μg was used there.
Jim
James Frysinger wrote:
Hospital Pharmacy Error Blamed for Preemie's Death
Tuesday , February 19, 2008
An error by a hospital pharmacy led to the death of a premature baby who
at one time was thriving, ABC News reported.
Alyssa Shinn was born 14 weeks early to Kathleen and Richard Shinn. She
was frail and tiny but grew stronger in the neonatal intensive care unit
at Summerlin Hospital in Las Vegas, according to the report, which was
published on Monday.
"She was doing excellent," Richard Shinn told ABC. "She had just come
off the ventilator. She was gaining weight. She was starting to take
milk. They just gave her a few drops of milk a day, in a little dropper.
And everything was good to go."
But after the Shinns went home to get some rest on Nov. 8, 2006,
something went wrong. Upon returning to the hospital the next morning at
9 a.m., the Shinns found their daughter was lethargic and not moving.
Kathleen Shinn said she could sense her daughter was on the brink of
death, according to the report.
It was later discovered that the lead pharmacist on duty at the hospital
the night before made a fatal mistake prescribing to Alyssa 330
milligrams of zinc, a nutritional supplement to help the baby's
metabolism, ABC reported.
The dosage was 1,000 times the 330 micrograms of zinc that the baby was
supposed to receive.
Source:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,331164,00.html
--
James R. Frysinger
632 Stony Point Mountain Road
Doyle, TN 38559-3030
(H) 931.657.3107
(C) 931.212.0267
