Not Dead

It's a bit of a story here whereby a hospital began to notify relatives that a woman had died, when she hadn't. In fact she had no connection to the hospital aside from once receiving a referral to the hospital, which she never followed up.

In Queensland police were sent to inform her elderly aunt of the hospital patient's death.

It is hard to imagine how this could happen. If you attend a hospital, every medical person you see will check your details, including your birth date and at times your home address and phone number. 

Believe me, I know, and I am repeating what I wrote at the time.

I was to have surgery to remove a melanoma on the back of my neck. I attended the hospital to see a consulting specialist and this was the one time when I wasn't asked my birth date.

She began detailing the planned treatments to my chest, how deep the cuts would go, all the information I needed to know, but I was puzzled. She was clearly puzzled herself, as the realisation dawned on her that chest treatment wasn't matching the neck issue. Eventually she said, 'There something really wrong happening here'. Details were checked, and of course she was so apologetic about the mix up.

It took me time to realise what had happened. There was a patient there with the same first name as mine, and a similar sounding surname. When his name was called, I thought it was my name and stood up and went with the surgeon to a consulting room. 

And she was the only medical person in a hospital who did not check my date of birth. 

There was also some confusion once at the pharmacy that provides my drugs, and I expect it was the same person who was wrongly confused by the hospital.

Never get tired of having your birthdate checked in hospital. It is so important, and if you suspect you are wrongly identified, speak up straight away, because none of you want to know the extreme treatments you might undergo when it was not about you and your treatment will be much simpler. 

Your wrist band should be checked if you are an inpatient. I'm sure Nurse Pixie was always thorough about this.