Medicine mistake kills child at St. Luke’s in Twin Falls

A child has died at St. Luke's Magic Valley Medical Center after being given the wrong medicine, hospital staff said Friday in a press conference.

St. Luke's spokeswoman Michelle Bartlome called the mistake a "tragedy."

The county prosecutor's office has requested Twin Falls Police assist in an investigation, said city spokesman Joshua Palmer. Detectives will learn more about the investigation Monday, he said.

The hospital launched its own investigation, said Idaho Department of Health and Welfare spokesman Tom Shanahan. He said the state office hopes to have the report by the end of next week, at which time it will review the report with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

“Our main focus will be on . . . if a system broke down, what was the cause” and how it can be prevented from happening again, Shanahan said.

Shanahan didn’t share other details, except that the hospital had contacted the state to report it, saying it was a medication error and that St. Luke's would be investigating.

The hospital is giving the family assistance, said Brian Fortuin, head of St. Luke's Quality Committee. He said events like this are rare, and the hospital has launched a review "to make sure this never happens again.”

Fortuin said the doctors and other staff who cared for the child are "devastated."

The hospital has not identified the child and is limiting information it releases "out of respect for the family," Fortuin said. The press conference took less than five minutes, and hospital officials declined to answer reporters' questions.

The Twin Falls County Coroner's Office also declined to comment.

Deaths by medical mistakes are difficult to quantify, but a 2013 study published in the Journal of Patient Safety says medical errors at hospitals are the third-leading cause of death in the United States, claiming between 210,000 and 440,000 lives a year.

IDHW doesn't keep records on child deaths occurring at hospitals, said spokeswoman Niki Forbing-Orr.

This story was originally published September 25, 2015 at 6:05 PM.