Remote Monitoring: Faulty Glucose Strips Lead to Insulin Overdose, Death

A woman who had recently undergone a successful kidney transplant was admitted to a Pennsylvania hospital for flu-like symptoms and died after clinicians, as a result of using reportedly faulty blood glucose test strips, administered too much insulin to her.

According to a report of the ensuing litigation, during the patient's hospital stay, her condition worsened after she was placed on an insulin drip, but blood glucose test strips indicated that her blood glucose levels remained high, so additional insulin was administered. The patient's blood glucose levels, as measured in the laboratory, correctly indicated that they were "extremely depressed" after the first dose of insulin, but the attending physician was unaware of this information. Allegedly, a nurse and a physician who were monitoring the patient remotely...