A woman suffered a heart attack and seizures after being given a potentially deadly overdose of adrenaline by a “panicking” junior doctor at an NHS hospital.
Rachael Emes, 47, was admitted to Watford General Hospital in Hertfordshire after experiencing a reaction to antibiotics she had been prescribed.
She was mistakenly given intravenous (IV) adrenaline only five minutes after an initial dose by injection – ten times the recommended amount.
A serious incident report by West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust said the junior doctor who administered the overdose had “panicked” after Ms Emes’ reaction to the medication and the fact that the initial dose of adrenaline failed to have an effect.
As a result, Ms Emes required intensive care and continues to suffer ongoing chest pain.
Ms Emes – a grandmother to 10-month-old Nelly and mother-of-two – said the impact on her life has been “massive”.
“It is absolutely horrific that something so simple could go so wrong,” she said.
“The doctor shouldn’t have administered the adrenaline by IV, he wasn’t qualified to do that, and it has caused my life to be turned upside down.”
Ms Emes, who runs her own cleaning business in Hemel Hempstead, said she struggles to work due to fatigue and is haunted by the events that happened in March 2021.
“Psychologically, it has been terrible. I have had nightmares about what happened and have woken up screaming, knowing I could have died,” she said.
“When I feel the pains in my chest, which I still have as a result of what happened, I start to panic in case I am having another heart attack.
“I struggle to work and have to oversee a lot of work rather than doing it myself, which is really hard. I have a successful business but this has stopped me from doing so much.
“My husband was also traumatised by what happened and he tries to support me as best he can, but it’s really hard.”
The NHS trust said it has “sincerely apologised” for the “shortcomings in care”.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get over what happened,” the mother-of-two said. “I can never trust that hospital to treat me again, knowing how close I came to dying through their error.”
The 47-year-old said she has received little support for her ordeal and had to pay for counselling out of her own pocket.
Ms Emes is now seeking compensation from West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust.
Katie Payne, her solicitor at law firm Slater and Gordon, said: “Rachael is forced to live with lifelong consequences as a result of this shocking incident, in which a doctor who was not qualified to administer adrenaline gave her ten times the recommended dose. This could so easily have been a fatal incident we were dealing with.
“Rachael is haunted by what happened and how close she came to losing her life as a result of putting her trust in medics.
“Lessons need to be learned urgently at this hospital, and processes put in place to enforce this, to ensure that a wholly avoidable incident of this kind does not happen again.”
A West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for the shortcomings in care provided to Mrs Emes and we have sincerely apologised.
“We carried out a detailed investigation to learn lessons from this incident and implemented a series of actions as a result. This included sharing the latest anaphylaxis guidelines with all clinicians. The incident has also been highlighted in departmental teaching sessions and governance meetings.”
