By Robert Kittle
A bill that would revoke the licenses of nurses in South Carolina who make grossly negligent medication mistakes that lead to death was approved by a state Senate subcommittee Wednesday. The subcommittee amended the bill to narrow its scope. The original bill would have revoked the license of any nurse who overmedicated or under medicated a patient based on gross negligence and the error did or could have resulted in death.
Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, is sponsoring the bill after being contacted by Tim and Mary Elisabeth Cutliff of Anderson. Their 7-year-old son Samuel died two-and-a-half years ago after a nurse gave him a fatal dose of morphine.
Mary Elisabeth says, “I called 911. And then the nurse said, ‘I gave him 4 milliliters, not .4 milliliters,’ which is a huge difference. And after that we found out she had had a record of overdosing.”
Samuel was born with a mitochondrial disease that left him in a wheelchair and unable to speak. His father says that, despite his condition, he was an amazing boy everyone loved. He had gotten an eye-operated computer that was allowing him to do things he couldn’t before and his parents were optimistic about his future.
After Samuel’s death, the nurse who gave him the morphine was fined, required to take remedial courses, and put on probation for one year. “Really a slap on the hand to her that that’s all she had to do to be back in full working status and it felt like a slap in the face to us that the loss of our son didn’t matter,” Tim says.
Sen. Bryant says, “I’m a pharmacist, and if I ever gave a child 80 milligrams of morphine I should lose my license and possibly face criminal charges.”
The South Carolina Nurses Association was against the original bill, but lobbyist Wendy Holmquist says the group is more comfortable with the amended version. The group is working with Sen. Bryant and Holmquist says they’re confident they can come to an agreement. The bill now goes to the full Senate Medical Affairs Committee. If it passes there, it goes to the full Senate, and then would go over to the House.
Tim Cutliff says, “We know that nurses are already overworked and overloaded in most cases, but in situations with gross negligence we want to make sure that it’s dealt with and that this kind of thing doesn’t happen to another family.”
