Nancy Mojica-Fisher entered a Newfoundland and Labrador hospital last Thursday for psoriasis treatment. Instead, she mistakenly received chemotherapy. On Monday, she received an apology.
Mojica-Fishe told NTV News that she became sick within hours of receiving the wrong medication and continues to feel the effects.
"Right now, I'm not feeling good," said Mojica-Fisher, who lives in Musgravetown. "I'm really, really tired. My stomach is still unsettled, although I have medication given to me by my family physician."
Mojica-Fisher, a United Church minister, should have received intravenous treatment of the drug Remicade at C. B. Cross Memorial Hospital. Instead, she received chemotherapy medication.
Chemotherapy is designed to kill cells, specifically cancer cells, and side effects include nausea, vomiting, difficulty breathing and itchiness.
When the nurses realized the mistake, they contacted Mojica-Fisher immediately.
"I felt feverish and nauseated," she said. "That was about 12:45 p.m. when I left the hospital. And an hour or so later, around 3:30 p.m., I got a call from the manager of the chemo unit."
Four days later, she was told to come to the H. Bliss Murphy Cancer Centre in St. John's, so doctors could monitor her health.
On Monday, Mojica-Fisher said she may have to stay at the facility for another few days.
"I could come down with an infection down the road," she said. "They took my blood work this afternoon and said it was OK, according to my doctor. But in general, they don't know what's going to happen. They just want to be sure I'm looked after."
Mojica-Fisher said she does not blame staff at C. B. Cross Memorial Hospital, and has no plans to pursue legal action. But she wants to let the public know what happened to her, so no one else suffers through the same ordeal.
Pat Coish-Snow, a chief operating officer with Eastern Health, said the health board has launched an investigation into the matter and offered an apology.
"I have not had an incident of a medication error as serious as this one before, so it's a very rare circumstance," said Coish-Snow, a health care administrator with 25 years experience.
"We apologize. We're sincerely sorry (that) something like this happened. It's not something that you wish would happen to any patient," she said.
"A nurse made a mistake on that day. Why she made that mistake is why we need to investigate further."
Coish-Snow said the nurse caring for Mojica-Fisher was caring for one other patient at the time of the error.
"I would have to say, in my initial review of this incident, workload would not have been the factor to cause this to happen," she said.
With a report from NTV News' Jodi Cooke
