​A woman is suing a New York hospital after she assented to ending life support on a brain-dead patient that the hospital said was her brother, but turned out to be a stranger with a very similar name, according to a January 27, 2019, article in the New York Post. The hospital called the woman after the patient was admitted unconscious from an apparent drug overdose, the Post said. In the patient's possession was his Social Security card, which indicated a middle name that the woman's brother does not have. Still, the hospital phoned her and said her brother was close to death. His swollen condition led the family to discount their concerns that the man was not their relative. After two days, the hospital determined that the patient was brain dead and the woman and her family gave the hospital permission to withdraw life support. It was only after an autopsy done by the city's medical examiner that the woman learned the man was not her brother, who was actually in jail related to an arrest that occurred two weeks before the man died. "I nearly fainted because I killed somebody that I didn't even know. I gave consent," the woman told the Post. When the woman finally spoke with her actual brother, he confronted her about the decision to pull the plug on a man she thought was him, the Post said. The woman explained that the doctors told her nothing could be done save him and the brother forgave her, the Post said. The woman's lawyer says the woman has been trying to find out information about the stranger who died surrounded by her family, the Post said. The lawyer told the Post that when he asked only for an investigation or an apology, hospital officials "basically spit in my face." He added, "This is beyond reckless conduct." Regarding the lawsuit, which is seeking unspecified damages, a hospital spokesperson told the Post "we don't feel there is any merit to this claim."

HRC Recommends: Patient safety hinges on delivering care to the right person. Yet, the risk of wrong-patient errors is ever-present for the multitude of patient encounters that occur daily in healthcare. Strategies include showing leadership support, evaluating the efficacy of current patient identification practices, standardizing and simplifying protocols and procedures for patient identification, educating staff, involving patients and family members in safe identification practices, empowering patients and family members to "stop the line" if they have a question or concern, defining registration processes, using technology wisely, adopting safe health IT practices, applying systems thinking, and reviewing event data to identify opportunities for learning.