Baby Almost Died after Doctors Inject the Wrong Drug; Here’s What You Need to Know about Sedatives Used on Kids

Parents of Baby Declan had to go through a horrific experience due to a minor negligence from doctors that almost cost Declan his life, according to a report by 9news.com. The report further confirmed that the doctors injected a near-lethal medicine used as sedatives for general anaesthesia -Suxamethonium instead of Ketamine to the child. Baby Declan was rushed to a hospital in Sydney after his mother noticed a bump on his head because he fell off his cot. His mother in a panic took him to the emergency ward wherein the doctors advised a CT scan, said the report. Given the baby's age, Decan was to be given a sedative before taking him to the CT scan machine. This is where a significant error occurred when the doctors injected into him Suxamethonium drug instead of Ketamine. The baby was, reportedly, given 12mg of Suxamethonium instead of 12mg of Ketamine by mistake as both the syringes were kept in the same tray. This caused the baby to limp and left him breathless. While this is a horrendous mistake that almost cost the baby his life, it is very important that you as a layman know of the basic sedatives and its effects.

What Is a Sedative? What Could Have Gone Wrong with Suxamethonium? Everything You Need to Know

Sedative is a drug given to a patient who is supposed to undergo a complex surgery or procedure to spare the patient from pain. According to a study, Procedural sedation: A review of sedative agents, monitoring, and management of complications, sedation is comprehensively described as, 'Given the continued increase in the complexity of invasive and noninvasive procedures, healthcare practitioners are faced with a larger number of patients requiring procedural sedation. Effective sedation and analgesia during procedures not only provides relief of suffering, but also frequently facilitates the successful and timely completion of the procedure (sic).'

In the case above, the child was given a stronger dose of sedative than what was supposed to be given, viz. Suxamethonium chloride instead of Ketamine. While Suxamethonium chloride, aka suxamethonium or succinylcholine, is a powerful medication used to cause short-term paralysis and used as part of general anaesthesia, Ketamin is way milder and usually used for kids. Suxamethonium is used to calm muscles during surgery even on a breathing machine.

Ketamine which is usually used as a sedative for kids in emergency cases can be described as, "Ketamine is a safe and effective sedative agent for use in children requiring immobilization to enable performance of a painful procedure. It is important to involve both anaesthetic staff and emergency department nursing staff in sedation protocol development to ensure a smooth introduction."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 28, 2018 01:10 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).