New mum killed in hospital drugs blunder gets justice

A mother who died following childbirth has finally received justice after the hospital was successfully prosecuted this week.

Thirty-year-old Mayra Cabrera died on 11 May 2004,  following a drug mix up at the Marlborough Road hospital in Swindon.

The epidural drug bupivacaine was put into her arm instead of a saline solution leading to medical complications and her death within an hour.

Mrs Cabrera who was also a nurse at the same  hospital and had just given birth to her first child, a baby boy when the wrong drug was administered.

An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Wiltshire Police discovered that the two different drugs were stored in the same racking system even though their packaging was almost identical.

Bristol Crown Court fined Great Western Hospitals NHS Trust £75,000 and £25,000 costs after they admitted breaching sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974  by putting patients at risk due to unacceptable storage and administration of drugs.

Following the hearing, HSE Inspector Liam Osborne blamed organisational failures of the Maternity Unit in the hospital since the day it opened in 2002.

He said: “This was an absolutely heartbreaking case to investigate. Mayra Cabrera needlessly died as a result of comprehensive management failings at board, pharmacy and ward level.

“Had the hospital done something as simple as keeping these completely different but almost identical-looking drugs in separate cupboards, then Mrs Cabrera would not have died.”

 Arnel Cabrera, Mrs Cabrera’s widower, thanked the HSE saying he was ‘pleased’ with the outcome of the prosecution.

He said: “It reinforces the importance of the health and safety of patients attending hospital and in particular the safe storage of dangerous drugs.  Now this case has been concluded I am hoping that my young son and I can have some closure and put this terrible tragedy behind us.”