Edinburgh doctor prescribed elephant sized insulin overdose

A doctor has admitted at a medical tribunal that an incorrect insulin dose entry she wrote for an elderly diabetes patient, at a hospital in Edinburgh, would have been suitable for a diabetic elephant.
Doctor Lucy Mahinda told the tribunal that the dose which the patient, aged 87, should have received was around 4 units of insulin but Dr Mahinda had written out 38 units, around 10 times too much, as the dose to be administered.
Fortunately, the error was spotted by a nurse before the insulin dose, which could well have proved to be lethal, was given to the elderly woman under the hospital’s care. In addition to the incorrect dose being advised, the type of insulin specified was also incorrect and during the same shift Dr Mahinda had prescribed 10 times as much of the antibiotic nitrofurantoin to an 84 year old patient.
Dr Mahinda, admitted that the insulin dose she had advised would have been a huge overdose and referred to it as being “a dose for an elephant”. She admitted that the medication error had been “very weird” and “very serious” and added her regret that she had made such an error.
The doctor, who works at Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, may face suspension or being struck off the medical register if the tribunal finds her to be unfit to practise.