"POISONED IN ERROR"

Evening Star, Issue 19664, 17 September 1927, Page 10

" POISONED IN ERROR"

AN JN FI JIM ABY MYSTERY. An open verdict was returned at the adjourned inquest at Guildiord (England) on two Avomcii inmates of Guildlord Infirmary avlio died after receiving medicine thought to be a liquorice powder. Air Edward .11 inks, public analyst, said he found in the organs ol the two Avomcn a considerable trace ol compound lobelia powder, but no trace ol liquorice poAvdcr. Miss MillTcent Dick, superintending nurse at the infirmary, said that she supplied the matron Avitli a quantity of liquorice poAvdcr lor (lie infirm Avard. When the matron told her later that four people avlio had this liquorice poAvder had boon sick, she had tho bottle containing the liquorice poAvdcr ■washed out. One of the inmates, a man named Albert Lee, was said to bo in possession of lobelia poAvdcr upon admission to the infirmary. An attendant said that she gave four Avomen in the infirm Avard medicine from a bottle of liquorice poAvder. The powder Avas darker than usual, and she called the matron’s attention to it. As it smelled like liquorice poAvdcr she used it, zlfter an absence of a quarter of an hour the jury returned an open verdict, the foreman remarking that the w r omen died of lobelia poAvder administered in error. “We should like to add,” he said, “ that there Avas negligence on tho part of the institution in the administration of the drug.” The Coroner; In what way? The Foreman: When the nurse found it Avas darker than usual it should have been sent back directly.