A public hospital insisted yesterday there was no connection between the death of an elderly patient and the administration of the wrong tranquilliser in a routine examination two months earlier.
The blunder at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital - one of several revealed in recent weeks at public hospitals - was revealed last night, eight months after it happened.
The elderly patient, whose age and sex were not revealed, was admitted to the hospital in Chai Wan on November 20 suffering from dizziness. The patient was later found to have a large, non-cancerous brain tumour.
Two days later a cerebral angiogram was ordered on the patient, to make pictures of blood vessels.
To control a spasm before the examination, the patient was supposed to have been injected with a tranquilliser called Midazolam.
But the doctor instead injected 0.988 gram of magnesium sulphate, the hospital said. Both liquids are transparent but are kept in different-coloured bottles.
The dosage was small and did not have any side effects, the hospital said.
