Hospital chief apologises over spine drug blunder

A hospital chief executive has apologised over a teenager's death, after doctors mistakenly injected an anti-cancer drug into the patient's spine.

Wayne Jowett, 18, was being treated for leukaemia at Nottingham's University Hospital.

John MacDonald, of the Queen's Medical Centre, said the hospital had let the Jowett family down.

He said: "We have failed Wayne and his family and for that we are deeply sorry.

"We apologise unreservedly to the family and would like to express our deepest sympathy".

He added: "A serious mistake was made when Wayne's drug treatment was administered wrongly.

"A drug that should have been used intravenously was given intrathecally - into the spinal cord.

"In spite of immediate action being taken it proved impossible to save Wayne".

Mr MacDonald said staff had been reminded to follow strict protocols and procedures for administering such drugs to patients.

He says: "A full internal inquiry has already been started to discover what went wrong. And if there are any lessons to be learnt from this then they will be".