# Boy, five, died after being given medication overdose by doctor before multiple organ failure



## Northerner (Jun 21, 2019)

The parents of a five-year-old boy say they need answers after their son died following an overdose of insulin at a hospital before surgeons discovered he was suffering with a serious infection.

Laura and Martyn Turner were told their son Shay was diabetic and experiencing a life-threatening complication after he was rushed to Rotherham General Hospital suffering stomach pain and vomiting.

They claim that after Shay had started receiving treatment at the hospital, staff later took them aside as their boy slipped into a critical condition to tell them a junior doctor had administered 10 times the safe amount of the hormone drug over a two-hour period before the mistake was noticed.

https://inews.co.uk/news/real-life/rotherham-general-hospital-boy-dies-medication-overdose-junior-doctor-safety-accident-and-emergency-inadequate/

"Laura, 28, from Rawmarsh, told i staff diagnosed him as diabetic after a test revealed he had low blood sugar." - I'm guessing that's poor recall/reporting and that blood sugars were high  Also, not sure what '10 times the safe amount of insulin' would be.


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## Ralph-YK (Jun 21, 2019)

Northerner said:


> 10 times the safe amount


That the sort of maths mistake that happens in general. In practice, in terms of administering medication, I wonder what it means. How many containers of insulin would that be.


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## Ralph-YK (Jun 21, 2019)

The line under headline says:


> 10 times the standard amount of insulin


In the body of the article it says "10 time the safe amount"
I wonder which it was.


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## Northerner (Jun 21, 2019)

Ralph-YK said:


> The line under headline says:
> 
> In the body of the article it says "10 time the safe amount"
> I wonder which it was.


Neither makes sense!


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## Matt Cycle (Jun 21, 2019)

Poor child.  I'm surprised he wasn't taken straight to Sheffield Children's.  According to the article he was meant to be on 1.8ml per hour - that's 180u but was given 18ml and that's 1800u.  I'm not sure I'd trust the reporting of anything in this article.


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## Lucy Honeychurch (Jun 21, 2019)

How terribly sad


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## Ralph-YK (Jun 21, 2019)

Matt Cycle said:


> According to the article he was meant to be on 1.8ml per hour - that's 180u but was given 18ml and that's 1800u.


I'd missed that, & it's different again. I'm not an insulin user myself. How large an amount is 180u? (Off hand I suspect it's Large!)
Poor lad, & hard for the parents.


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## Northerner (Jun 22, 2019)

Ralph-YK said:


> I'd missed that, & it's different again. I'm not an insulin user myself. How large an amount is 180u? (Off hand I suspect it's Large!)
> Poor lad, & hard for the parents.


Well, it's over half a cartridge in one dose, and a cartridge would normally last me about a week  I doubt you can trust any of the details of this report, they appear very confused. In any event, a very tragic case


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## nonethewiser (Jun 22, 2019)

Tragic beyond words.


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## Ljc (Jun 22, 2019)

Tragic, I feel so sorry for the little ones family


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## Lanny (Jun 22, 2019)

So tragic!  So young & gone? Can’t say anything else!


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## mikeyB (Jun 23, 2019)

I suspect the misreading was the difference between _units_ per hour and how that translates to  _mls_ per hour. It’s such an easy mistake to make that prescriptions like that should always be double and treble checked. It’s a mistake that occasionally occurs in chemotherapy, also resulting in death.

Tragic, but negligent. Nobody will ask how many hours that junior doctor had been working that day. And remember, a junior doctor is any doctor who isn’t a consultant.


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## Lanny (Jun 23, 2019)

Aww!  The poor doctor too!  He/she has to live with that mistake for life!


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## Pumper_Sue (Jun 23, 2019)

Very sad for the little lad and his parents  It should not still be happening in this day and age.
Back in the 80's I was given 4 times the amount of insulin I should have been given, obviously went rather hypo then given a *ollocking by the ward sister for my bad control  The cover up was amazing


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## Northerner (Jun 23, 2019)

Pumper_Sue said:


> Very sad for the little lad and his parents  It should not still be happening in this day and age.
> Back in the 80's I was given 4 times the amount of insulin I should have been given, obviously went rather hypo then given a *ollocking by the ward sister for my bad control  The cover up was amazing


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## HOBIE (Jun 23, 2019)

A lot of People still don't know the difference between T1 & T2 inc med staff. T1 is a very serious illness. Poor kid !


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## Ralph-YK (Jun 23, 2019)

Is that suggesting that T2 isn't serious (or an illness), @HOBIE ?


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## Robin (Jun 23, 2019)

Ralph-YK said:


> Is that suggesting that T2 isn't serious (or an illness), @HOBIE ?


I suspect Hobie meant, Type 1 is serious in that you can kill the patient quite quickly if you get it wrong.


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## HOBIE (Jun 23, 2019)

Lots of my very good friends diagnosed at the same time as me are not here anymore ! Thks Robin (I think that is part of the problem Ralph you & others don't know the difference. & big difference inc a lot of NHS staff.


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## Ralph-YK (Jun 23, 2019)

HOBIE said:


> Lots of my very good friends diagnosed at the same time as me are not here anymore !


Sorry to hear that HOBIE.


Robin said:


> I suspect Hobie meant, Type 1 is serious in that you can kill the patient quite quickly if you get it wrong.


Like hypos?  A doctor at a meeting said they considered it a medical emergency (different to going high). As it can have very serious consequences in a short time.


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## HOBIE (Jun 24, 2019)

Last weekend I was talking at Manchester uni, on the Sat Sheffield uni & then the Mon Sunderland uni. Today I was talking at Newcastle uni. I do know what I am talking about Ralph. T1 &T2 are very different please try & learn


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## Pumper_Sue (Jun 24, 2019)

HOBIE said:


> Last weekend I was talking at Manchester uni, on the Sat Sheffield uni & then the Mon Sunderland uni. Today I was talking at Newcastle uni. I do know what I am talking about Ralph. T1 &T2 are very different please try & learn


In hypo terms a hypo is a hypo no what type you are and both need to be dealt with quickly and efficiently.

No offence meant @HOBIE but I wouldn't like to put it to a vote that you know what you are talking about half the time


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## HOBIE (Jun 24, 2019)

That's from a person who told someone to leave there needle from a canula in. Can you remember PS ?


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## Drummer (Jun 24, 2019)

A small amount of searching shows that this is a fairly complicated situation - the child had a condition which resulted in a compacted gut, and an operation was done to remove a major part of it, he was already in a seriously weakened state from the infection.
He was not a diagnosed type one diabetic when he arrived at the hospital, and the reporting of the treatment is hazy to say the least - I doubt that the situation will every be fully understood.


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