Near-fatal medication error leads nurse to make patient safety a priority

More than 30 years have passed since the near-fatal medication error but Michael Villeneuve recalls the moment with absolute clarity.

[rnchick]

I have downloaded this amazing honest story and put it into my files to share as a teacher and a practitioner. He is absolutely 100% correct about that little voice in your head. But the thing that makes him a true professional, he immediately manned up. Another place, another time, he would have simply been terminated. We nurses are considered DISPOSABLE and easily replaced . We constantly take the blame for things that truly were not a result of us not performing our job.

[Officialfmmgamer]

Thank you so much for sharing your story.

[williesnyder]

This is very accurate for even those of us, not nurses, but TMA’s, etc.
Listen to that little voice, absolutely!!

Great video.

[boorhaave]

Excellent video, candid and articulate

[mspadorchard]

This is the kind of character, honesty, caring and backbone that we need in all or our healthcare professionals. None of us are perfect, and the more we recognize that fact the better we can change our systems to be less prone to human error.

[kiaclarke]

I hear your story. Yes l can say as an ex RN l had a high patient load and an RN asked me to give a patient flucloxicillin and he directed me to the wrong patient. Immediately l contacted the on duty doctor and followed his instructions. This patient had an allergy to flucloxicillin but showed no allergy symptoms or reactions. The patient was so happy because she did not have any drug reaction. Because of her diagnosis she informed the specialist that she did not have any allergies to the drug and that it would be a better medication for herself while in hospital.

[lastar]

Am I missing something here? Did we ever give IV potassium push 32-33 years ago? I do know that we NEVER push IV potassium now. Other than that, this Nurse owed up to his part in the error, and that was the right thing to do. Good job for having integrity and honesty. Patient safety should always come first!

[ccaruso]

My pet peeve is people constantly knocking on the door, calling the phone when I’m pulling meds. And it’s for dumb crap like trying to locate me to tell me crap I know in the first place or just wanting to know my location for no good reason. Makes me want to yell. I had a nurse today trying to pressure me to work over while I’m trying to pull meds. I’m like REALLY? Grrrr

[renatasweightloss]

I know the feeling. Feels extremely bad.

[virginiafry]

I can relate to this 100%!
As an intern I accidentally wrote up an incorrect dose of a drug - I did not personally give it, as my co-intern did.
The patient died - she had stage IV breast cancer - this case went to Coroner’s Inquest (England) and the verdict was accidental death.
Her family thanked me for looking after her prior to this incident.

[catmom]

I've made errors before & this sickens me, too!

[adamr]

The font/print size on IV medication labels that nurses give is extremely small. This has huge potential to cause medication errors. Why is nobody fixing this problem?? It's unbelievable and continues year after year to be a MAJOR problem.

[antukinann]

I guess if I was in that situation all I would ever think about is what will happen to my patient like career? I can still find another job but that life that I killed I could never bring it back. I really learned a lot from this vid people makes mistakes and that we should always learn from our mistakes and never do it again

[arunimarohatgimusicofficial]

Yes because of this terrible fear ... people dont pursue medicine nemore.

[helendavis]

Nowadays, it’s like they just do not care.

[EaglesTruth]

You don't give potassium via IV push in the 1st place. I'm a nursing student and I know this!

[jennyhughes]

Thank you for this. I'm so glad he learned from his terrible error and teaches others what he learned = does he TELL them how he learned & what happened because he DIDN'T "stop & think it through a second time" before acting?

At 4.10 he says: "My career’s over, I’m going to lose my licence, he’s going to die..." = interesting, eye-opening and very shocking that his FIRST thoughts were for himself and that the patient might die was LAST on the list. But this doesn't really surprise me because I'm a survivor of terrible medical errors and as soon as I alerted them to the fact I KNEW things had gone wrong (actually, probably long before that = as soon as THEY knew they'd messed up big-time) they went into lie, deny & cover-up mode = they were only worried about THEMSELVES and not me, their VERY injured (almost killed) patient, AT ALL.

The NHS' (in the UK) cover-ups continued PLUS they started attacking my credibility as a way of protecting themselves. They prevented/denied remedial care (they KNEW I could have died from my injuries, especially my untreated and VERY injured throat/airway which became severely infected, but didn't care) and lied to me repeatedly: to my face (in hospital & after in farce meeting), on the phone (Consultant anaesthetist responsible for the juniors on duty that weekend when he was off = only 'on call') & in a letter to me from Chief Executive AND in a letter of lies from the negligent Consultant Surgeon (again, responsible for his juniors but not there that weekend) who neglected me in Ward Round on the Monday - in FRONT of all the students he was teaching/training) to my GP so that he would help them in their cover-up - which he did: he too totally neglected my life-threatening injuries.

So now, almost 15 years later, I STILL haven't been told the truth, nobody has admitted any of it to me and I'm still waiting for correct diagnoses of the injuries they gave me. I've lost my health, my job/work, my home, my pension, my security, some of my friends/family, my sports & hobbies, my liberty & so much more = the life I had. If only they had been open & honest straight away and hadn't, as here, put THEIR jobs/lives as more important than mine, how different it could have been - still terribly injured but WITHOUT all the lies & psychological traumas & neglect ON TOP. Sadly I don't think anyone learned anything much at the time because they stuck to their line "nothing went wrong" so they/others may well have injured more people and NOBODY was protected due to my tragedy.

[karcemkdbil]

This must be an actor. You NEVER PUSH IV Potassium. Bull crap story.

[adishred]

Never going to a canadian hospital. Blaming on others. Ouch.