HAMBLIN: NURSE GAVE PATIENT TRIPLE HEROIN DOSE
Central News, Press Room, Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey, LONDON, EC4
Tel: 020 7236 0116
Pix: 020 7329 2877
Nursing and Midwifery Council/Jill Clark
eMail:news@centralnews.co.uk
https://www.courtnewsuk.co.uk
2 May 2007
with pix of Hamblin
heart…1
A nurse gave a dying woman almost three times the prescribed amount of pure heroin, a misconduct hearing was told.
Stephen Hamblin, 38, tripled the dose of diamorphine and ‘deliberately’ failed to replace the woman’s glyceryl trinitrate (GTN) infusion after it ran out, the Nursing and Midwifery Council heard.
Hambin was employed as an agency nurse on ward L2 for critically ill elderly patients at The Hope Hospital, Stott Lane, Salford, at the time of the incident on July 26, 2002.
He had given the 80-year-old woman, known only as patient A, 6.25mg of diamorphine over a four
hour period when she had only been prescribed a maximum of 2.25mg.
John Sharples, for the NMC, said: ‘Although the patient was prescribed a maximum of 2.5mg of diamorphine in any four hour period she was given 6.25mg by Hamblin.
‘This registrant administered to patient A a total of 6.25mg of diamorphine between 8am and 12.25pm.
‘We know this because the registrant’s initials appear on the prescription chart attesting to the administration and quantities of that drug.’
The woman had suffered a suspected heart attack and doctors had decided that if she stopped
breathing she would not be resuscitated.
But they had decided to continue with her drug treatment.
Mr Sharples added: ‘On the day of the incident it was suspected the patient had suffered a heart attack and that by this stage the out look for her was poor.
‘But the doctors had not entirely given up hope and the intention was that her treatment would continue.
‘The GTN infusion was either stopped deliberately or the drug ran out. In any event the registrant was clearly aware that the infusion had stopped because he informed another nurse of this fact at the hand over.
‘He had not restarted the infusion which he should have done.
‘If it ran out he didn’t replace it as he ought to have done. There’s no good reason whatsoever why the infusion shouldn’t have been continued.
‘The registrant gave no explanation for his lack of actions in the medical records. In the end the GTN was reinstated by the nurse who took over from the registrant.
‘Whether the registrant stopped the GTN or failed to restart it’s the council case it still amounts to misconduct on his part.
‘Patient A was particularly ill and vulnerable and was entitled to expect nurses responsible for her care to implement her care regime carefully.’
The woman was admitted to the hospital after falling out of bed but her condition deteriorated and she died the day after the alleged incident on July 27, 2002.
Hamblin, now living in Edinburgh, denies that having stopped patient A’s GTN infusion he failed to record in the patient notes his reason for doing so; that he failed to take appropriate action when the patient’s infusion ran out; that between 8am and 12.25pm he administered to patient A 6.25mg of diamorphine which was in excess of the amount prescribed.
If he is found guilty of misconduct he could be struck off.
The hearing continues.
ends
