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ARTICLE:
Adam L. Cohen, Frederick Rivara, Edgar K. Marcuse, Heather McPhillips, and Robert Davis
Are Language Barriers Associated With Serious Medical Events in Hospitalized Pediatric Patients?
Pediatrics 2005; 116: 575-579 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
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[Read eLetters] Potentially serious errors due to language barrier
Heracles Dellagrammaticas, Nicoletta Iacovidou   (5 September 2005)

Potentially serious errors due to language barrier 5 September 2005
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Heracles Dellagrammaticas,
Associate Professor in Neonatal Paedistrics
NICU, 2nd Dept of Paediatrics, University of Athens,
Nicoletta Iacovidou

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Re: Potentially serious errors due to language barrier

hdellagr{at}ath.forthnet.gr Heracles Dellagrammaticas, et al.

Editor,

We read with interest the paper by Cohen et al, on language barriers leading to medical errors, published in the September issue of Pediatrics

We would like to add our experience on this issue. In the last decade following the influx of economic refugees to Greece, we had 5 neonates admitted to the Neonatal Unit for variable reasons to whom wrong dosing or wrong medication had been administered by the mother to these neonates. These were identified during history taking. These neonates had been disharged from various maternity hospitals in Athens. In all instances the mother was an economic refugee with poor inderstanding of the Greek language. The medications involved were as follows: Paracetamol (wrong dosing)(1 case), Ferrum solution (Ferric hydroxide polymaltose)prescribed by two different Obstetricians to the mothers and wrongly administered to the babies (2 cases) and 2 more cases, where the corresponding neonates had received methylergometrine maleate prescribed by two different Obstetricians to the mothers and wrongly administered to the babies. In all instances the neonates did not require special measures and were discharged in good condition.

The cases described may only be the tip of the iceberg and simply highlight a newly emerging problem as Greek society is rapidly becoming multilingual and multicultural

Conflict of Interest:

None declared