Is Y2K responsible for my niece's heart stopping in hospital because of machine malfunction

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My nice had emergency surgery because of trouble she had with a recent brain surgery. On the second night her husband was sitting in the chair and woke up and looked over at his wife and noticed her twitching and then she stopped breathing. The machine that was dispensing pain medication mal-functioned. It gave her too much causing her heart to stop. Because her husband noticed, they were able to start her heart again, but they no longer rely on a machine to give her medicine, they use shots. Y2K or not, that is the question.

-- Emerald Green (Emerald.Green@Emerald.com), January 14, 2000

Answers

Sorry to hear about your neice. Good thing her husband was there. Could be a standard equipment failure or Y2K. I hope she is doing better, either way.

-- New Guy (Newbie@begentle.com), January 14, 2000.

I would contact rx2000 to find out if her particular piece of medical equipment was Y2K ready (mail to rx2000-alert@rx2000.org, or visit their website at rx2000). Some pieces of medical equipment DID fail at rollover. You might also try ECRI

-- Etta James (ej@umkc.edu), January 14, 2000.

Emerald it would be helpful if you could post the particulars about this machine.

Lotsa *eyes* see this sight and it maybe lifesaving info.

-- Johnny (jljtm@bellsouth.net), January 14, 2000.


---find out the exact make and model number of the machine. do a web search, see if it has any official recognized y2k glitches by the manufacturer. See, if so, if it was fixed. If it was, ask to see the proof. Take that info, if true, to a lawyer. If they won't cooperate with you in a professional manner, take that information to a lawyer, see what he or she says. Not saying it was y2k relateed or not, but I would investigate it if it was my friend or relative. Good luck, hope she gets better. You have a right and duty to defend your neice from situations like this, y2k or not. The medical industry makes huge money, I mean, gazillions. I worked tradeshows for fifteen years, medical shows were always big bucks overtime bonanzas for us grunts, huge elaborate exhibits, a LOT of money spent there. Not saying just sue willy nilly, just cover your bases, investigate a little.

-- zog (zzoggy@yahoo.com), January 14, 2000.

Emerald, I have had 3 major surgeries, and used PCR machines all 3 times. Two of those times the machine malfunctioned and shut off. Fortunately, my mother complained to the nurses that I was in really bad pain, and then they could see that the level of morphine was not going down at all. The last time this happened to me was in 1994. This is why you need a person (a patient advocate) in the hospital to watch over you if you are really sick. The hospitals are using nurses aids for the bulk of the care and RNs for dispensing drugs and supervisory purposes.

-- (formerly@nowhere.zzz), January 14, 2000.


Don't have the link, but check the IEE (Brits, not US) embedded systems / chips forum. There was a fault with a machine for Patient dispensed meds...as I remember it, at Rollover machine dispensed a double dose and then locked up.

Sorry I don't have that link...perhaps someone can help.



-- kstevens (kstevens@ It ALL went away 14 days ago...well SORT OF ! .com), January 14, 2000.


SERIOUSLY IF YOU SEE A MACHINE MALFUNCTION -- Y2K OR NOT -- CALL THE MEDWATCH LINE OF THE FDA. 1-800-INFO-FDA. They do act on these types of things plus they can tell you if the machine routinely has problems. I would think it could also be helpful, to tell you if the hospital has been negligent in maintaining the machine.

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), January 15, 2000.

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