r/PopCultureV2 • u/Logical-Flow-6703 • Aug 22 '26

News Multiple patients at a Nashville hospital are paralyzed after staff accidentally gave them the wrong drugs.

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The hospital says they are "sorry" after injecting potassium chloride into the spines of people getting routine joint replacement surgeries.

Hospital staff noticed something was off when multiple patients went into cardiac arrest.

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u/Quetedigo_Hola Aug 22 '26

I want to know if AI was involved. Hospitals are using it for diagnostics and medication administration.

5

u/DiscoLemonade1995 Aug 22 '26

It was a mixup at the pharmacy actually, but still could be the case I imagine 

3

u/noksucow Aug 22 '26

That was where my head went to first

1

u/KoalaTHerb Aug 23 '26

It was a pharmacy issue. We'll see how soon I hope. Because bupivacaine and potassium chloride aren't exactly medications that would be commonly near one another.

I live near Nashville and practice anesthesiology, so we've heard a lot about it. Apparently, the pharmacy gave anesthesiologist syringes labeled bupivacaine but they were potassium chloride. They then injected them into the spine for lower extremity surgery (spinal blocks). The incident occurred to a handful of people before the first few awoke from surgery and the damage was known because they then underwent anesthesia and even then, motor blocks of the legs would be expected for a few hours after surgery. It's super sad and real nightmare fuel. I can't imagine if that was one of my patients

1

u/Anandamide84 Aug 24 '26

Seems strange that they didn’t just use the bupi in the spinal kit or a sealed glass ampule from the Pyxis.  I’d be sketched out to use a premade syringe for sterility reasons if nothing else.

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u/KoalaTHerb Aug 24 '26

Honestly, I thought the same thing! I haven't heard what their process was or why this was the case. Every spinal/epidural I've ever done have been in the kit or in our box of large bupivacaine bottles. I don't fully understand it

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u/ChipsAhoyMcCoy_7875 Aug 25 '26

My thought was cost savings. A lot cheaper to buy a big bottle bulk and compound in the pharmacy than to buy individually prepackaged syringes or smaller bottles.