Medical mix-up leads to Pingtung clinic lawsuit

The families of six children who were given the wrong drug at Pingtung's Love First Clinic (崇愛診所) over the weekend are going to file a lawsuit against the clinic, according to the Pingtung Prose-cutors' Office yesterday.

The six children were among scores of people mistakenly given the diabetes medicine glibenclamide, also known a Euglocon, instead of Periapine, an antihistamine.

"The prosecutor has already questioned the clinic owner, administrative physicians, a pharmacist and five nurses," said Kao Pi-hia (高碧霞), chief prosecutor at Pingtung Prosecutor' s Office. "All related information and evidence has also been gathered and will be kept for further investigation."

Pintung County's Department of Health yesterday fined the clinic's owner, Dr. Wu Ping-chien (吳萍建), NT$150,000 for lack of supervision.

Wu made a public apology last night.

"[Since the incident] we have been in torment," said Wu on behalf of his clinic's staff. "We hope all these kids will be healthy and happy."

Initial reports of the number of children sickened by the prescription error ranged from nine to 15.

However, Pingtung County Department of Health Director Kun Chi-chieh (康啟杰) said yesterday that a total of 122 patients had been affected, including 15 children under the age of three who became comatose and suffered from spasms after being given the wrong medicine.

He urged patients who had been prescribed drugs by the clinic since Saturday to go to hospitals to have their blood sugar levels checked and to disregard their clinic prescriptions immediately.

Kun said a nurse at the clinic was to blame for mistaking Euglocon for Periapine and refilling the empty jar used to hold the medicine with the wrong drug.

Fourteen of the children sickened by the error are now reported in a stable condition in hospitals in Pingtung and Kaohsiung. However, an eight-month-old baby girl, Tsai Chin-ting (蔡晴婷), remains in a coma at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Hospital.

A doctor at the hospital said that if Tsai survives, she could remain in a persistent vegetative state.

"The baby is still unconscious," said Dr. Huang Li-tung (黃立同). "We are doing the best we can."

Tsai's family was not among the six that told the Pingtung Prosecutors' Office they wanted to file a lawsuit, but her father appeared on television yesterday telling reporters at the hospital that the family planned to sue.

It is not known if any adults who were given the wrong medication had developed blood sugar or other problems.