Fluid overload court case

January 28, 2010

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Intravenous news: News.com.au report “A teenage girl is suing the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, claiming it failed to care competently for her as a newborn, leaving her mentally impaired. The girl, now 13, has launched Supreme Court action, claiming the hospital’s staff left open a drip tap in a fluid system, causing fluid from a syringe and an intravenous bag to flow into her vein.

In her statement of claim – lodged through her public trustee – she says that she was drip fed more than 50 times the intended amount of intravenous fluid in a three-hour period in April 1996. She also claims staff “failed to utilise safety mechanisms appropriate for infusion” of the intravenous fluid. The document states the girl now dribbles consistently, has trouble talking and is held back in her schooling through her intellectual handicap.

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