A NSW Coroners Court inquest this week has found a healthy 54-year-old man died after routine knee surgery after a medication error saw him given stronger drugs meant for another patient.
The incident at Macquarie University Hospital in Jun 2015 saw Paul Lau mistakenly given the incorrect pain medication after a mix-up by an anaesthetist entering data into an electronic chart.
Lau died from "multiple drug toxicity," with the ABC reporting the inquest was told the hospital had introduced a new TrakCare system for managing medication in the weeks prior to his operation.
The inquest was told there were as many as 15 opportunities to detect the error that were missed.
Hospital staff were devastated at the death and cooperated fully with the inquest, with a number of procedures having been changed due to the tragedy.
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