On Aug. 14, 2026, Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital Midtown in Nashville, Tennessee experienced a pharmacy medication error that severely injured four patients undergoing routine joint replacement surgeries. Medical personnel intended to administer mepivacaine, a standard local spinal anesthetic, to block pain signals during surgical procedures. Instead, pharmacy staff accidentally filled syringes with concentrated potassium phosphate and delivered them directly into the patients’ spinal pathways.1
While potassium supports muscle function and cellular health in standard oral formats, direct injection into delicate spinal fluid inflicts immediate, excruciating, and severe neurological damage. All four individuals suffered severe reactions immediately following their operations, prompting emergency medical interventions across the facility. All of the surgeries were outpatient procedures.2
Devastating Impact on Surgical Patients and Families
Family members of the affected victims revealed that the mix-up paralyzed two patients and forced another into the intensive care unit. Among those impacted, 72-year-old Glenda Dorton suffered paralysis from her chest down following a routine knee replacement. Her family confirmed that while the joint replacement itself succeeded, the toxic spinal injection destroyed her mobility and required her to be transferred to a specialized rehabilitation clinic in Chicago, Illinois for long-term treatment.3
Medical malpractice attorney Clint Kelly said this is one of the worst cases he has ever heard of. He stated:
Just think of like, battery acid, going into the most tender nerves in your body. It’s the worst type of injury you can imagine.4
Hospital Leadership and State Regulators Respond
Hospital executives self-reported the safety failure to state regulators on the day it occurred. Ascension Saint Thomas CEO Shubhada Jagasia, MD issued a public apology, stating that leadership feels deep regret for the harm inflicted on these four patients and their loved ones. Hospital leadership confirmed that administration met directly with each impacted family to offer spiritual care resources, immediate support, and access to continuous long-term medical care. However, affected families emphasize that swift corporate apologies cannot reverse the catastrophic physical effects caused by the error.5 6
Following the hospital’s self-report, state and federal authorities launched official investigations. The Tennessee Healthcare Facilities Commission and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation opened active inquiries into the facility to determine how pharmacy personnel mixed up the distinct medications.
Meanwhile, Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital implemented immediate safety overhauls within its pharmacy workflows. The hospital established mandatory dual-pharmacist verifications for all spinal medications, introduced automated hard-stops on scanner alerts, separated high-alert drugs into distinctly labeled storage zones, and hired independent quality experts to validate its new protocols. Internal reviews confirmed that no additional surgical patients received incorrect medications.7
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Click here to view References:1 Breen K. Drug mix-up at Nashville hospital causes dire complications in 4 patients. CBS News Aug. 21, 2026.
2 Ibid.
3 Kraus J. Woman paralyzed after drug mix-up in Nashville hospital pharmacy to begin ‘intensive’ rehabilitation treatment. New Channel Nashville Aug. 26, 2026.
4 Breen K. Drug mix-up at Nashville hospital causes dire complications in 4 patients. CBS News Aug. 21, 2026.
5 Adams K. 4 Patients Injured After Drug Mix-Up at Ascension Hospital in Nashville. MedCity News Aug. 24, 2026.
6 Breen K. Drug mix-up at Nashville hospital causes dire complications in 4 patients. CBS News Aug. 21, 2026.
7 Ibid.
7 Responses
UK Nurses have to have 2 qualified nurses check All I/V. I/M S/C DLM. CD drugs being administered at the patient both pre drawing up. & pre administering with the patient verbally & against their name band ,
The doctors should lose their licenses and the hospital should have a hefty fine. Millions per incident. Tired of the meaningless apologies and slaps on the wrist.
I am a bit confused. Isn’t it the pharmacy whose heads should roll? usually the doc administers what others have prepared.
Somebody needs to look deeper into the Ascension Sacred Heart/Saint hospitals! After my sons traumatic accident in Bay Co., FL the trauma floor was our saving grace! The surgeons were the best..nurses and trauma team could not be beat. Once they sent him off the trauma floor the care spiraled downhill fast! Walking into his room to find his food tray 2 ft. from his bed and he was not able to move from his bed, had lost use of his right arm and hand and could not feed himself if he could have reached it. He suffered a TBI, a broken tibia that required a rod in his right leg and his breakfast and lunch was left across the room or close but he could not reach it or feed himself! I had to go daily to feed him and make sure he received showers, meds, everything. One day they had to dental surgery on him again and we did not know it was about to happen. When they decided to do it, it close to 5pm. They took him for surgery snd I waited alone in the waiting room. When they were finished they told me they had moved him down to another floor. All of our things were in his room when we went for surgery. They took all of our personal items without our knowledge to another floor and room. He was not ready to be moved to this floor because of r
the necessity of his care. When I had a fit over it, they had a “Supervisor” come to talk with me. She assured me that he would be well taken care of and she would have a doctor come and talk with me once he was done in surgery…not his surgeon but a totally different one because the surgeon that did the oral surgery had already left and went home once he finished with my son..never let me know how he was or discussed anything before he left. Then as she was sitting with me to wait for the “doctor” to come and speak with me, this guy dressed in OR scrubs comes out and starts telling me how good my son will be taken care of on the new floor and how he had to come out and make sure I was reassured about it. Said he had just left a surgery from having been “elbow deep” into a man’s stomach. All this time I was made to believe he was a doctor…never saw a badge. We had to agree to go to the new room. Later I found out that he was a CRNP! He was friends with one of the nurses on that floor. I came in one day to find my son totally naked with nothing but a sheet barely covering his leg and privates with his door wide open so everyone could see him, and when I had another fit the nurse came in and told me “that was the way he liked it.” Then the male CRNP that I had dealt with came in and they both did some snide remarks about my sons situation and laughed about it. I told her to get me a gown and had to dress him. He could not do anything for himself. This crap rolled on the entire time we were at that hospital..which was over 4 months and they tried to push him out within the first month with a tracheotomy tube and a feeding tube and broken bones..even his pelvic ring was broken in half. This is the most heartless system that I could imagine ever having to deal with. if you ever have to go to this hospital and go to the trauma floor and they decide to put you elsewhere…run!!!! I could write a book!..and I have pics to back it up!
It may be time for a no cell phones for hospital staff while on the floor working type rule.
Whenever we go into clinics all we see is most people on their phones.
Funny how they moved on these updated safety protocols so fast. Must have been a cost saving measure to not have done that before.
The neat part is nobody ever goes to jail for causing egregious harm via medical malpractice. If you operated heavy equipment and absolutely crushed multiple cars with your semi in traffic, you’re going to jail. But if you’re a doctor or staff assistant at a hospital wearing a white lab coat, then inject the equivalent of battery acid into patients spines, someone up the corporate ladder makes an apology on your behalf instead and you go back to work the next day. Fines based on income might help.
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Suing the hospital for what the pharmacy provided is not fair and does not make sense; the whole responsibility is that of the pharmacy; maybe partial responsibility goes to the Dr, BUT if the anesthesia that was labeled for what the Dr had ordered, I don’t see the Dr being responsible and an apology is definitely not enough for the horrific damage done to the patients. At the pharmacy level, obviously, several witnesses should be present when preparing drugs, especially those that can cause such life-changing results.