This is sad: an elderly British man was the victim of an accidental insulin overdose. Leslie Avenell, who was 82, had diabetes. He was living in a care home where he had the assistance of a nurse. Turns out, the nurse injected Mr. Avenell with 84 units of insulin - ten times the correct dose. The death has been ruled an accidental mishap caused by neglect. The awful mistake took place after the nurse misread discharge papers for Mr. Avenell from a local hospital, which stated the patient should be given "8U" (eight units) of insulin. So ruled the coroner assigned to investigate the case.Complicating the case: postmortem results show that Mr. Avenell died from bronchial pneumonia. However, the coroner says he cannot rule out the fact that the overdose contributed to Mr. Avenell's death. He also observed the situation could have been avoided had the nurses involved taken more care over the injection.
The nurse involved in the case did not give evidence in court after being warned that she might incriminate herself. A factor here could be language. The nurse who gave the shot and her colleague - and brother - who was also present, are both Indian and completed their nursing training there. An officer with the local police who interviewed them after the incident says neither is fluent in English.
Mr. Avenell's family members are deciding whether or not to purse legal action against the home where the incident took place. His son has questioned how any nurse could give such a huge overdose and still be considered competent. "As far as I'm concerned," he says, "they should never work as nurses again."
Read all about it. Professor Vincent Marks, a world expert on insulin who has assisted in some high profile cases of insulin murder, has written a book - the '
