Seattle woman dies after hospital x-up
Patient injected with toxic antiseptic instead of X-ray dye

The Associated Press
Updated: 4:24 p.m. ET Nov. 24, 2004

SEATTLE - A woman who underwent surgery for a brain aneurysm died after she
was mistakenly injected with an antiseptic solution instead of a harmless
X-ray marker dye, hospital officials say.

Mary McClinton, 69, of Everett, had the operation Nov. 4 at Virginia Mason
Medical Center and died Tuesday.

At the end of McClinton's operation, a technician was supposed to inject the
dye into a leg artery. Instead, the syringe was filled with chlorhexidine, a
highly toxic solution used to clean the skin, hospital quality chief Dr.
Robert Caplan said.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6577979/
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Hospital Pharmacist are still not doing all they should be doing for their
patients. It is obvious that doctors and nurses don't have the proper
training to label medications and external preparations. Unlabeled Syringe,
unlabeled cup and I wonder if still an unlabeled swab on a stick?

"The hospital had recently switched from a brown iodine antiseptic to a
colorless version. The marker dye also is clear, and the syringe was filled
from an unlabeled cup containing the antiseptic. Caplan said the cup of
antiseptic has since been replaced with a swab on a stick."