Caustic Soda Given To Patient

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32037, 11 July 1969, Page 20

Caustic Soda Given To Patient

'(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, July 10. A woman who inadvertently administered caustic soda to a 70-year-old man instead of glucose was discharged without conviction in the Auckland Magistrate’s Court today.

The woman, whose name was suppressed by Mr A. A. Coates, S.M., pleaded guilty to a charge of Injuring a man under circumstances that, if death had been caused, she would have been guilty of manslaughter. the charge arose from an incident at Auckland on May 13 last year. The woman was represented by Mr R. K. Davison, Q.C. Senior-Sergeant B. J. White said that on May 9 last year

a 70-year-old man was admitted to a hospital suffering from cardiac disease and obesity. It was arranged that the man should undergo a glucose test. It was later found that the solution administered was not glucose but caustic soda, said Mr White. The man was treated immediately. Later his condition deteriorated, and an artificial gullet was given to him. He eventually died of liver failure, which was not attributable to the taking of the caustic soda. For the woman, Mr Davison said her act had not caused the man’s death. Although she carried out three to five of these tests weekly, this was the first time she had done one on her own. His inquiries showed that it was the practice to keep glucose in bottles on the shelf in the cupboard. These were the only bottles kept there. Caustic soda was obtained

in flagon-like bottles and put into small, round jars, he said. Someone had written the formula, and the words “caustic soda,” in pencil on the bottle the accused thought contained glucose, said Mr Davison. When the accused went to the cupboard in the morning it was a busy time of the day. “She took the bottle out, she saw it was the right kind of bottle, but she did not check the wording,” he said. “This is how the whole unfortunate thing has happened.” Procedures had since been tightened, said Mr Davison. “There are strict rules that before anything is administered the person administering it has to taste it “The accused is caught in circumstances which are not of her own making. Her part in the incident was relatively small,” said Mr Davison. He submitted that the degree of fault was at the lower end of the scale of man-

slaughter and that there was no need for a severe penalty. He asked for a discharge without conviction and suppression of name, explaining that the woman would be continuing her employment. “This shows it is not altogether her fault this happened,” he said. “It is rather a recognition the system was at fault, rather than herself.” The Magistrate said that the woman seemed to be a victim of the system. “Her culpability is small when one takes into account that the bottle concerned was one of the same type and bore the same label,” he said. He said he accepted that because she was remaining in her position, her employer was satisfied the blameworthiness was slight. “The change of the system indicated where the fault lay,” said the Magistrate. He ordered that the woman pay $4O to the cost of prosecution and $5 costs.