A student nurse at Northampton General Hospital accidentally gave an elderly disabled woman tablets meant for another patient but did not tell her about the mistake, an inquest heard.
Paraplegic Barbara Cosford, aged 69, of Thirlestane Road, Far C
otton, Northampton was admitted to hospital with breathing problems but died on a ward on March 2, 2008, about 14 hours after being given a dose of blood pressure drugs meant for a patient in the next bed.
Yesterday's hearing was told the drug may have caused her condition to worsen but found it did not lead directly to her death, which was of natural causes.
However, county coroner Anne Pember said the fact that no nurse or doctor would take responsibility for telling the family or Mrs Cosford about the error immediately was "totally unacceptable" and "absolutely unforgivable".
The inquest heard the student who issued the drug was being monitored on the medicines trolley round by a senior nurse who was not trained to be her mentor and who left her charge to check on another patient.
Returning to the trolley, she went to attend to Mrs Cosford's drip but realised the drug check sheet the student had been using had no reference to IV treatment and belonged to a patient in the next bed.
Hours later Mrs Cosford's condition deteriorated and she died as her family arrived for a visit.
However, yesterday's inquest heard Mrs Cosford was not told of the drug error and her family were only informed after she died, when hospital policy was to inform the patient and relatives as soon as possible after an error.
Seven nurses and senior doctors, including the student nurse, all offered their apologies to watching family members yesterday. They were assured changes to drug rounds had been made as a result of the mistake. However, the senior nurse was too ill to appear.
Philip Gray, representing the hospital, addressed the family at the end, saying: "We apologise to you, Mrs Cosford's family, both for the error and that you were not told about it."
