A picture of expired medicine bottle was posted on social media platform Facebook that has raised serious concerns among the Singaporeans, as it stated that the KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH) has prescribed the expired medicines to a child. The hospital authority said on Tuesday, October 2 that they are investigating the allegation.
Judy Teo, the mother of the baby uploaded the image on Monday, October 1 including a text, which states that KKH had prescribed her infant daughter, who is only three weeks old, with a nasal spray. The medicine was issued on August 25 but still, the baby had a breathing issue as well as blocked nose even after using the spray for one month.
As reported, after seeing the lack of improvement in her child's health condition, Teo's husband decided to take a look at the nasal spray on Monday and then they found that the medicine had already expired.
Later, the director for the office of patient experience at KKH, Irene Chan said that the authority is aware of the social media post and already started their investigation. She also stated that they are in contact with the Teo and her family.
The 32-year-old Teo said that on August 25 she took her new-born to KKH, as she was suffering from fever. The baby was admitted to the hospital for one night and the next day she was discharged. Teo, who is a customer service officer claimed that the expired medicine was given by nurses in the hospital. She observed that even after the hospitalisation and medication her child was crying for many hours daily.
The parents are disappointed after the incident happened, as they believed in the services of KKH, which is a specialised hospital for children. Teo added that KKH has arranged a check-up for her daughter on Wednesday, but she hopes that they can offer her more help instead of just one consultation.
This is not the first case of medical negligence as earlier the hospital authority apologised for issuing wrong medication to a young girl by mistake, as they realised later that the medicine had been opened and used before.
However, as of now, the social media post has accumulated almost 140 comments by the concerned people and many users have shared the story. Apart from the expiry date some of the users have raised few more questions on the comment section, as one woman commented, "This version of iliadin is for 1year and above. Baby's version is a light green cap and spray, not drop. You might want to raise this as well. For a 1month old girl, can only use for 5 days then rest for 3. Even the infant version, am not sure if for a baby barely a month old can be used. My boy started only at 3 months. Before that, doc only prescribed sterimar."
"It's odd that KKH issued this iliadin for a 1-month-old. I don't doubt their professionalism but it's odd. Sterimar Spray for infant," said Facebook user, Isaiah Iss Yeo.
There are some people, who said that the parents should have checked the expiry date, instead of taking it home on the first day.
"Apart from hospital's QC failure, parents fail in their part to check too before consumption. If it takes 1 month to realize the 'mistake', it speaks about the attitude of the parents concerning the well-being of the child as well," said Donna Tay.
