Wrongful administration of high risk drug may have resulted in deaths of children

Based on a research In “criminal” negligence history of medicine, probably no single drug has come more in the limelight than the wrongful administration (through the intrathecal route) of anti-cancer drug, vincristine sulphate.(Vincristine is said to be the drug used on the 3 children that died recently at the Georgetown Hospital) Intrathecal administration is a route of administration for drugs via an injection into the spinal canal, or into the subarachnoid space so that it reaches the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and is useful in spinal anaesthesia, chemotherapy, or pain management applications. Vincristine is Vinca alkaloid used during oncological therapy. ..Wrongful administration of vincristine intrathecally during diagnostic and therapeutic lumbar punctures caused patients to die within a few weeks.In one case at the Queen’s Medical Center in Nottingham where Feda Mulhem, a specialist registrar in hematology, supervised infusion of vincristine into the spine, instead of the vein, of a young patient who was in remission from leukemia. The patient later died and Dr. Mulhem was charged with “manslaughter” by the public prosecutor. Dr. Mulhem eventually pleaded guilty and he was sentenced for eight months in prison. Unlike some other commonly used anti-cancer drugs, vincristine should never be given into the spine. The package monograph for vincristine clearly mentions that intrathecal use of this drug could be”fatal”. Obviously, Dr. Mulhem and several others before him did not read the packaging instructions carefully before using the drug through a wrong
route causing catastrophic outcome for their patients.Common side effects of vincristine sulfate injection include nausea, vomiting, weight loss, diarrhea, bloating, stomach/abdominal pain or cramps, mouth sores, dizziness, headache, hair loss, constipation, loss of appetite, changes in sense of taste, and numbness and tingling in the hands and feet.

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