2 Infants Die After Given Adult Doses At Indy Hospital

INDIANAPOLIS -- An error at an Indianapolis hospital killed two premature newborn babies late Saturday night and sparked an internal investigation at the hospital.

Officials at Methodist Hospital said Sunday that 2-day-old Emmery Miller and 5-day-old D'Myia Nelson were given lethal doses of the anti-clotting drug Heparin by mistake.

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Hospital Takes 'Corrective Action' After Newborn Deaths
Lethal Dose Kills 2 Newborns At Indy Hospital

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Hospital officials called the incident rare and isolated, and said their thoughts and prayers go out to the newborns' families. Six babies in the newborn intensive care unit were given adult doses of Heparin because of a procedural error, according to Methodist Hospital president Sam Odle.

"One baby received three doses. One received two. The others all received two each," Odle said.

The mistake was caught and all of the babies were treated, but it was not in time for the two that died. One of the newborns was taken to Riley Hospital for Children and was listed in critical condition on Monday morning. The other three were listed in stable condition at Methodist Hospital Monday.

Hospital officials said a pharmay technician accidentally stocked a drawer with an adult dosage of the drug instead of an infant dosage. Several nurses then administered the drug, hospital officials said.

The incorrect doses were removed from the newborn intensive care unit after the error was discovered. Hospital officials stressed at a press conference Sunday evening that other babies are not in danger, and that they are taking steps to ensure this error doesn't happen again.

"Our risk-management professionals, physicians and nurses will go through all of the computer records, go through all of the charts. They'll interview the staff, and they'll go through the full procedure and determine where the gaps in procedure were," Odle said. "We have taken some corrective actions already, but we'll take additional ones based on the investigation and what results from that."

Hospital officials discussed changing the packaging on the pre-mixed vials of Heparin to make them more distinguishable.

The two children who died were born at 25 and 26 weeks, and each weighed less than one pound.