Call for ban follows horrific epidural error
SKIN antiseptics should be banned completely from the sterile equipment table used during epidural procedures to prevent them being injected by accident, recommends an internal Health Department investigation ordered after a mix-up left a Sydney mother, Grace Wang, catastrophically injured.
Antiseptics should be distinctively coloured so they could not be mistaken for the saline solution injected into the spinal column to numb the pain of childbirth, says the Root Cause Analysis report obtained by the Herald.
And anaesthetic procedures should be standardised across all NSW hospitals to reduce the possibility a doctor or nurse misunderstanding the protocol.