Fresno, Calif.-based Community Regional Medical Center has settled a lawsuit filed by the family of a patient who died after receiving a "massive dose" of a blood thinning medication, reports ABC. Under the settlement, the hospital will pay Elena Silva's family $250,000, nearly the maximum amount allowed under state law.
Last December, Silva was admitted to the hospital for pain and numbness in her arm and was given 50 times the ordered amount of the drug heparin, notes ABC.
Since then, Community Regional has taken steps to make sure patients receive the correct doses of ordered medications to prevent such a fatal medication error from happening again.
"Fresno Community Hospital is a good hospital and I think that this was just a bad mistake that occurred," the family's attorney Warren Paboojian told ABC. "They've owned up to it, but it's a good hospital."
Meanwhile, medication errors cost the U.S. at least $3.5 billion a year in lost wages, productivity, and additional healthcare expenses, according to a 2006 report by the Institute of Medicine, which noted that medication mistakes were the most common medical error.
For more information:
- read the ABC article