Tragic Medication Errors Result in Accidental Abortions and Premature Birth

In a span of only a few hours, nurses at a Florida hospital operated by the giant Tenet Healthcare Corporation mistakenly gave two pregnant women a drug commonly used to force dead fetuses out of the womb. One woman lost two unborn twins and the second gave premature birth to a daughter who suffered severe brain damage.

11-month old Traniya Sampson suffered brain damage and remains hospitalized due to health...

11-month old Traniya Sampson suffered brain damage and remains hospitalized due to health complications when her mom, on bed rest in a West Palm Beach hospital, was mistakenly given a drug commonly used to force dead fetuses out of their mother?s womb.

(Courtesy the Sampson family)

One of the women is now suing Tenet in cases that safety advocates say underscore the continuing problem of prescription errors that should and could old be easily caught.

"These two women were supposed to be safe, on bed rest, and the worst possible thing happened to them," said David Kelly, an attorney representing Tesome Sampson, and her 11-month old daughter Traniya, who suffered brain damage and remains hospitalized due to health complications.

Sampson was five-and-a-half months pregnant when her doctor ordered her to strict bed rest at St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach last August.

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But instead of giving her the progesterone suppositories the doctor had ordered to prevent premature labor, the hospital staff mistakenly gave her a dosage of Prostin, a powerful drug used to induce labor and expel fetuses out of the womb after miscarriages, according to a complaint filed in a Florida court.

After four hours of extreme abdominal pain and cramping, Sampson gave birth to Traniya, expelling her in a commode after nurses said she just "needed to have a bowel movement."

Kelly says that incident involving the twins, which happened just hours earlier, should have made the hospital staff more cautious in administering the medication, but instead they missed numerous opportunities to catch the error.

St. Mary's Medical Center, which is operated by hospital giant Tenet Healthcare, apologized to the Sampson family in a statement release yesterday and acknowledged the mistake. The hospital described the incidents as "an unfortunate error that occurred despite the safeguards we have in place."

A hospital spokesman did not respond to questions about the incident involving the twins. However, the hospital issued a very similar statement and apology last year, according to local news reports.