Hospital put cast on girl's wrong arm (From Daily Echo)

Hospital put cast on girl's wrong arm

2:10pm Friday 27th August 2010 in

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AFTER seven hours in casualty Katie Wight hoped her daughter Honey would make a speedy recovery from her broken arm.

But it was not until the following day with the toddler proudly showing off her plaster cast that Katie realised it was on the wrong arm.

The two-year-old had been sent home from Southampton General Hospital with her healthy right arm strapped up in a heavy cast leaving the toddler in pain with an untreated fractured left elbow.

Single mum-of-two Katie did not notice the mix-up until the next morning because Honey fell asleep in the car before she put her straight to bed.

It was not until the family were at the breakfast table at their home in Weston when Katie spotted a little bruise on Honey’s injured left elbow and realised the mistake.

Now 29-year-old Katie is complaining to the hospital about the medical blunder. She has welcomed an investigation that has been launched by the hospital into what went wrong.

Katie, who also has a ten-year- old son, said: “I was so angry. I just couldn’t believe it I was in shock. The nurse was there and it said ‘left elbow’ but she put it on the right arm. It is just crazy.

“I don’t want anyone to go through the same. Honey went all night in bed with the wrong arm plastered and in pain.”

Katie took Honey to the city’s accident and emergency hospital on Wednesday afternoon after she jumped off a slide and fell into a ball pool. Although she there was no visible injury she struggled to straighten her arm.

X-rays revealed Honey had chipped the bone in her elbow but nurses fitted a plaster cast on her healthy arm before the family was discharged.

The nurse who made the error had even put a plaster cast on a teddy bear’s correct left arm beforehand to calm the youngster’s nerves.

Katie said: “I did not even notice. If it wasn’t for the X-ray you wouldn’t know she even had a broken arm apart from when it was fully stretched.

“I was busy singing songs to her, trying to distract her as she was sat on my lap. I thought it was strange she didn’t even flinch during the plastering.”

The full-time mum made a second trip to the hospital yesterday morning. She added: “This time they got the right arm and she was really screaming.”

Health chiefs at Southampton General Hospital apologised for the mistake. Dr Michael Marsh, medical director, said: “We are deeply sorry to Honey and her family. Incidents like this are extremely rare and we will be carrying out a full investigation into how it happened.”