Bungled scan landed woman in theatre

A woman who had multiple surgeries after a botched hysterectomy suffered another medical misadventure when a routine scan went wrong, causing her arm to swell to four times its normal size.

The incident, for which Hutt Valley District Health Board apologised to 65-year-old Wendy Tapara, is expected to feature in the Health Ministry's serious and sentinel events report published today.

The Petone woman has undergone multiple surgeries in the last 25 years to repair internal damage from a botched hysterectomy.

She said the most recent injury, which happened in September 2008, had been a huge setback.

"Over a year on, it's still giving me trouble, pain and tingling. I'm always dropping things."

It was supposed to be a straightforward procedure: a contrast tomography (CT) scan to check for a possible blood clot.

However, the needle delivering the dye to her veins dislodged, causing the chemical to leak into her arm tissue.

"I told them the needle wasn't in properly – it didn't feel right, it was wobbly – but he was very rushed and said, `It'll be right'. I felt this terrible pain and my arm started to swell ... I screamed for help and was told to `stop that racket'."

She was rushed into the operating theatre and plastic surgeons sliced the skin from her hand to her elbow to relieve the pressure.

"If they hadn't done that, I would have lost my hand and my arm ... they were four times their normal size."

She received a written apology from Hutt Valley District Health Board chief executive Chai Chuah.

"I just wanted recognition for what happened to me," she said. "These things shouldn't be happening."

However, she is still unhappy about the hospital's claim that clinicians flushed the intravenous line before putting in the dye.

"If they had done that, it wouldn't have happened, but they insist they did and it was just one of those things and no-one was to blame."

Following her original injury in 1983, she received a lump sum payment from ACC of $17,000 – "big money in those days".

The British surgeon who did her reconstructive surgery told her that, if she had suffered that kind of medical misadventure in Europe, she would have got $2.5 million.

"I reckon we should have the right to sue ...

"When I read about those people who have died I think, `I'm not so bad off after all'.

"I know that doctors and nurses can't do miracles, but some of these things should not be happening."

Hutt Valley DHB has already disclosed eight serious and sentinel events to be included in this year's report, including two deaths and six injuries. Mr Chuah said a further four cases under investigation could be added to the list.

The two fatal cases occurred in March and May last year, but were not included in the 2008 report.

Hutt Valley DHB treats 40,000 emergency patients each year, 18,000 in-patients, 75,000 outpatients and assists with 2000 births.

Last year's national report detailed 258 serious and sentinel events nationwide, including 76 deaths.