Machine "killed Royal Hospital patient"

Nov 11 2008 Liza Williams and Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

royal liverpool hospital

FAULTY equipment at Liverpool’s Royal Hospital may have led to the death of a patient, the Daily Post can reveal.

An investigation is under way after a patient died during a procedure at Liverpool's main hospital trust.

The family of the unnamed patient have sought legal advice, after a medical device failed during treatment administered within The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen NHS Trust.

The Daily Post can also reveal that Whiston Hospital is “treating seriously” claims a patient died there after medical staff mistakenly gave her an overdose of sedatives.

Keith Farrell says a ward manager at Whiston Hospital told him his 79-year-old mother was put into a fatal coma after a prescription was misread.

She was given 40 milligrammes of drugs instead of 10 milligrammes, he claims.

The probe at Whiston comes just weeks after a coroner criticised protocols at the hospital following the death of a patient who was given a fatal overdose of Potassium Chloride.

Coroner Christopher Sumner said 91-year-old Edna Alker’s death “was a result of a preventable consequence of a necessary medical procedure” at Whiston.