Richmond Hill, ON – Yesterday, hospitals received a notice from Health Canada to immediately sequester boxes containing the injectable drug, Morphine 2mg/mL ampoules from Sandoz Canada Inc. Sandoz had advised that they had received notice from a Toronto hospital that vials of Isoproterenol Hydrochloride 0.2mg/ml, 1ml amps were found in 10 pack size box of Morphine 2mg/ml, 1ml amps.
Isoproterenol is an adrenergic drug used in cardiac arrest situations which can cause the following side effects: tachycardia and arrhythmias, headache, tremor and sweating. It has an immediate onset when given and a short duration of action of about 15 minutes.
York Central’s Quick Response
“As soon as we learned of this issue, members of our Pharmacy Team immediately went across the hospital and individually checked all of the medication carts on all of the units. All affected medications were removed from the units by 10:30 a.m. and secured in the Pharmacy narcotics vault. All non-affected medication remained on the floor and all units currently have a sufficient supply of the 2mg/mL morphine ampoules,” said Uchenwa Genus, Manager, Pharmacy Services.
No Incorrectly Packaged Morphine Found at York Central Hospital
Our pharmacy team reviewed and inspected the sequestered product and all were found to be correctly labelled morphine. We are reviewing some patient charts to look for any irregularities, but at this time do not believe any adverse events occurred.
“On behalf of the entire organization, I’d like to extend our appreciation to our Pharmacy staff whose prompt actions enabled our hospital to quickly respond to this issue. We are confident patient care has not been affected,” said Cindy Draycott, Operations Director, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Program.
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