SINDANUM: NURSE DENIES MISTAKING SALT CELLAR FOR INHALER
A nurse accused of handing an asthmatic patient a salt cellar instead of an inhaler insisted today (Weds) he was only showing it to her.
Nicanor Sindanum claims he picked up the container because it looked like an inhaler but then realised his mistake.
Sindanum is said to have made a string of errors while working on a 20-bed emergency ward for the elderly, where he failed one nursing exam after scoring just 29 per cent.
He has admitted failing to keep correct notes for Patient C, but denies he never gave her the right medication, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.
At the time of the incident on December 6, 2007, the Filipino national was working on ward 21 at Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen.
Giving evidence, Sindanum said: ‘I didn’t actually give the salt cellar to her. I picked it up and I thought “oh, this is a salt cellar”.
‘I just showed it to the patient like “ma’am, it’s not here, this is the salt cellar”.’
Sindanum faces 15 charges relating to mistakes he is alleged to have made during his time at the hospital, between October 2006 and January 2008.
The panel has heard Sindanum continued to feed a patient soup through a straw despite him choking and ‘turning blue’ on November 4, 2007.
Asked about the incident Sindanum said: ‘Initially I withdrew the straw when I saw he was choking. I did that myself, because I didn’t want the patient to choke.’
At that point another nurse came into the room and told him to stop feeding the patient.
‘I gave the patient a gentle tap on the back and said “I’m afraid you’re not going to have any more because you’re choking”,’ he said.
The nurse is also accused of administering the wrong quantities of medications and using a bag of intravenous fluids without checking its expiry date.
Sindanum admits using a nebuliser to deal with a patient’s low blood oxygen, not feeding a patient, and not recording when he dispensed an inhaler.
He denies handing the woman a salt cellar, failing to re-sit exams, confusing items of medical equipment, and washing a patient a second time in a day.
The hearing continues.
ends
