Hospital plasters little girl's wrong arm

A hospital apologised yesterday and launched an investigation after medical staff plastered the wrong arm of a two-year-old girl. Honey Wight was taken to the accident and emergency department of Southampton General Hospital on Wednesday by mother Katie after she jumped off a slide and hurt her left arm.

Medics X-rayed the arm and found the youngster had chipped a bone. Nurses then plastered the right arm and sent the family home. Ms Wight, 29, said she did not notice the mistake until the next day because her daughter fell asleep in the car and she put her straight to bed. "I was so angry. I just couldn't believe it," she said.



"The nurse was there and it said 'left elbow' but she put it on the right arm. It is just crazy. I did not even notice. I was busy singing songs to her, trying to distract her." The mother said that staff even plastered the correct left arm of Honey's teddy bear to help calm her nerves.

She took her daughter to the hospital yesterday, where the mistake was corrected. Dr Michael Marsh, the hospital's medical director, said: "We are deeply sorry to Honey and her family. Incidents like this are extremely rare and we will be carrying out a full investigation into how it happened."