Doctors apologise for spine jab blunder

A coroner today recorded a verdict of accidental death in the case of a teenager who died after a powerful cancer treatment drug was injected into his spine instead of a vein.

Nottinghamshire coroner Dr Nigel Chapman said: ‘‘We can put a man on the moon but why can’t we find a safe method to prevent these deaths.’’

Wayne Jowett, 18, an apprentice mechanic from Keyworth, near Nottingham, died on January 4 just under a month after vincristine was mistakenly injected into his spine while he was receiving treatment for leukaemia at the Queen’s Medical Centre.

Today’s inquest heard from two doctors, Dr David Morton who had been at the hospital for four months and had never given the treatment, and Dr Feda Mulhem, who had been at the hospital for two days prior to the blunder.

Both men told the inquest that they had little or no experience in giving lumber puncture treatments to cancer patients and both men apologised unreservedly for the mistake which lead to Mr Jowett’s death.