Doctor who admitted error at UK inquest practising in Tallaght children's hospital

A doctor who paralysed a woman in the UK by mistakenly injecting an anti-cancer drug into her spine is practising at the National Children's Hospital in Tallaght, Dublin, The Irish Times has learned.

Dr Peter Greally, a paediatric respiratory specialist, was held responsible earlier this month at an inquest at Kettering for administering the drug, Vincristine, to Ms Donna Horn (23), from Wellingborough, Northants.

Ms Horn was diagnosed with leukaemia when she was 12 and treated at Leicester Royal Infirmary. During a routine treatment in 1990 Dr Greally injected Vincristine into her spine instead of a vein, causing her to be paralysed from the neck down. At the inquest this month the doctor apologised to Ms Horn's family and said it was a genuine mistake from a lapse in concentration.

Ms Horn had developed a chest infection before a trip to Florida in 1998. While she was on holiday the illness, which was aggravated by her paralysis, got worse and she died.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, the coroner, Ms Anne Pember, said: "It seems the only way to avoid human error is to make it impossible to attach these syringes to a lumbar puncture needle.

"I implore the medical profession to pursue as a matter of urgency the obtaining of an alternative syringe to avoid such a repetition."

The inquest came a day before the death of a man in Nottingham from a similar mistake by doctors. Mr Wayne Jowett (18) died after Vincristine was injected into his spine instead of a vein last month.

There is no known cure or antidote to the drug being administered mistakenly in this way. It leads to a slow paralysis of the body until the heart finally stops.

Two junior doctors at Nottingham's University Hospital were suspended by the Queen's Medical Centre following the incident.

A spokeswoman for the Adelaide & Meath Hospital, incorporating the National Children's Hospital, said Dr Greally had been employed in Leicester between 1989 and 1990 and had been working with the Tallaght hospital since the early 1990s.

She said he had no involvement in the treatment of leukaemia or cancer patients in the Republic, adding that Dr Greally had no further comment to make.

Medical Council records show Dr Greally qualified as a doctor in 1984 and has been a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland since 1998.

Responding to concerns over the Nottingham case, a British Department of Health spokesman said: "This is a rare and catastrophic event which has happened in this and other countries over the last 20 years.

"It is potentially avoidable, and a major new initiative is being taken to try to address a problem which has not been solved by previous action."

The initiative includes introducing a mandatory system for reporting medical mistakes. Research is also ongoing in the UK into treating wrongly-administered spinal injections.