A mum is planning to take legal action after her toddler was given the wrong morphine dose following heart surgery.
Tiny Theo McAdam was given a just tenth of the morphine needed following a heart operation in June last year.
The two-year-old was left writhing in agony when he awoke from surgery at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow.
Devastated mum Ellie McAdam said her son pulled wires out of his own chest which caused his lung to collapse as he woke up.
Ellie, 28, from Peterhead, Aberdeenshire said: “I had to watch my son nearly die.
“You could hear a bubbling noise from his lungs, it was awful.
“I was covered in blood and terrified. It was the most horrific thing I have experienced.”
The mum said she and her husband were sitting by Theo’s hospital bed in the ICU while his sedation was being turned off.
A consultant then admitted there had been a mistake with the youngster’s medication so he was on morphine ten times weaker than required.
Before Ellie had a chance to react, her son had already begun to wake up screaming out in agony.
She said: “He tried to rip out his breathing tube and ripped out all the wires in his veins.
“He had two chest drains from when he was on bypass, he got a hold of one ripped it out and collapsed his own lung.
“He was screaming and crying, clinging to me in pain while his dad was having to pin an oxygen mask to his own son’s face.
“Nurse’s were crowding around trying to plug the hole where his chest tube was pulled out which is seeping with fluid.”
Ellie said she is now planning legal action against NHSGGC.
She told the Record she wanted to speak out after eight-week old Zohan Mansoor was given an overdose of paracetamol at the same hospital this month.
First-time parents Ahad Ul Hassan and Hira Mansoor, from Ayr, have been left “praying for a miracle” as the tiny baby remains in intensive care following the incident.
The family have been told the youngster may have irreversible brain damage.
An internal probe has now been launched, with the young family being “supported” by NHSGGC.
Dr Claire Harrow, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Deputy Medical Director for Acute Services, said: “We have apologised unreservedly to the family of patient Theo McAdam for this error, and for the impact this had on the care he received.
“This incident is the subject of a Significant Adverse Event Review which is still ongoing.
“Theo’s family will continue to be involved in the review, and they will be fully informed of its finding.”
The family are waiting until the NHS probe is concluded before they go ahead with legal action.
