Northern Beaches Hospital: Sedated patient slips off operating table and sewage appears in surgeon’s hand basins
An investigation is being launched into how a sedated patient fell off the operating table at Northern Beaches Hospital as they were about to undergo surgery.
Northern Beaches Hospital is investigating how a patient fell of an operating theatre table while she was sedated.
The Manly Daily understands that the 27-year-old was sedated and about to be operated on for a broken ankle when she “slipped” off the table about two weeks ago.
A source said the woman was “woken up” given a brain scan to check she had not suffered any brain damage, which she hadn’t, and was brought back to theatre the following day for the ankle operation.
It comes amid reports that sewage was backing up in the surgeon’s hand basins at the weekend resulting in a theatre being closed for 24 hours.
“The patient was OK, but other falls in other hospitals have resulted in seizures, heart attacks,” the staffer said.
“It’s the greatest failure of a hospital to drop a body on the concrete floor of an operating theatre.”
A source confirmed the patient was sedated, but it is not known whether she was fully unconscious or at the time of the fall.
A spokesman for Healthscope, the private operator behind Northern Beaches Hospital, said it was “investigating an incident involving a 27-year-old patient who slipped off a theatre operating table”.
“The patient was not injured in the fall, and was not being operated on at the time it occurred,” the spokesman said.
“NBH has apologised to the patient and family for the incident.
“A mutual decision with the patient and the family enabled the operation to be performed
successfully the following day.”
The spokesman said NBH has been engaged in ongoing follow-up with the patient and family while they were in the hospital, and post discharge.
Meanwhile, over the weekend a blockage was discovered in two sinks in Northern Beaches
Hospital’s Operating Theatre 1.
A spokesman said it caused waste water to rise up in the sinks, where the waste was completely contained.
Operating Theatre 1 was closed while the matter was being investigated, and a plumber on-site attended the blockage immediately.
“Investigations found the blockage was a result of large amounts of paper hand towels flushed down a toilet,” the spokesman said.
The drains were cleared and Operating Theatre 1 was thoroughly cleaned, with no operations performed in that theatre on that day and it remained closed for 24 hours.
A parliamentary inquiry into public-private $600m Northern Beaches Hospital is due to start at the end of the month.
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