AUBURN (AP) -- A nursing home was fined $12,000 after a 94-year-old resident received the wrong medication for 18 days and subsequently died.
The Auburn Citizen reports that the Cayuga County Nursing Home in Auburn also faces a civil suit filed by the woman's son.
A state Health Department investigation found that in March and April 2009, three different nurses gave Geraldine Burke tablets of a diuretic and blood pressure medicine instead of medication she needed for a thyroid condition.
The mistake happened because a pharmacy had shipped the wrong medicine. The two medications have similar names - metolazone and methimazole.
An autopsy found she died of sudden heart problems resulting from kidney failure aggravated by the diuretic. She also suffered from other conditions.
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