Care group patients given dishwasher fluid to drink
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Here's an alarming tale of what can so easily go wrong and it's not the first time we've heard of this happening.
Service user (cared for person) given a drink which contains cleaning fluid and on this occasion the service user unfortunately died.
We had a similar incident at a client's home some five years ago and the lady owner was hounded by the press, vilified in the media and generally had her life made hell.
She had separated all cleaning fluids and drinks, keeping cleaning fluids in a locked external store.
It is believed a member of staff wanting to save herself time and effort brought some cleaning fluid into a lemonade drink bottle and kept it beside the sink.
A resident went into the kitchen and poured herself and two fellow residents what she thought were glasses of lemonade, all three were taken to hospital, two were discharged same day leaving one in hospital for five nights.
Phenomenal trauma caused by one person's laziness and rule breaking.
Moral of the story - consider how others may view your actions before doing anything.
Download article (PDF).