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Child dies after being given wrong medicine, nurse sacked

Two nurses have been fired after failing to follow procedure and giving a child the wrong medicine five hours before he died.

Zhu Chenyi was taken to hospital with a fever in September, where he was diagnosed with viral encephalitis with psychotic symptoms, according to Chinese publication, ThePaper.cn.

The nurses on-duty at the Yixing People’s Hospital in a Chinese province north of Shanghai were both fired after the hospital met an agreement with the family.

ThePaper.cn reports the nurse on-duty mixed up the drugs, which was to be administered through a drip and gave the five-year-old boy metronidazole, which is used to treat intestinal and parenteral amebiasis, instead of mannitol, which is used too treat brain edema.

Picture of a nurse, with a face mask on administering medicine through a drip in a hospital, surrounded by medical equipment.
Two nurses have been fired after a child died hours after he received the wrong medicine at a hospital in China. Source: Getty Images.

After Zhu appeared to be uncomfortable, the doctors ordered a CAT scan, which didn’t show any abnormalities, according to the South China Morning Post.

The child was then transferred to the children’s hospital affiliated with Suzhou University on the afternoon of September 8.

On the way to the hospital, the boy went in to cardiac arrest and despite his father’s attempts to revive him, the boy died that night.

Zhu’s mother told ThePaper.cn, he was the “only son” in her family and she plans to have more children in the future.

Not only were the two nurses fired from the hospital, but the Yixing City Health and Health Commission announced staff would be punished pending a final investigation, according to the South China Morning Post.

The family and the hospital went through a mediation process. According to The South China Morning Post, the hospital maintained it only had “minor responsibility” in the child’s death, but the family disagrees.

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