Spinal tap given to wrong patient in city hospital
A female patient has wrongly been given a spinal tap at Beaumont Hospital in Dublin , in a case of mistaken identity.
The patient had the same name, year of birth and a similar address as the patient who was actually supposed to have got the procedure.
The spinal tap is performed by inserting a needle under local anaesthetic to extract a sample of fluid to test for diseases such as bacterial meningitis or multiple sclerosis.
The mistake was only discovered by staff at Beaumont Hospital after “persistent questioning” by the woman when she turned ...