THE family of a cancer patient killed by a drug overdose at a Birmingham hospital marked what would have been his 40th birthday with a charity football match.
Father-of-three Paul Richards, aged 35, from Sutton Coldfield, was given five times the normal dose of fungal infection drug amphotericin at Heartlands Hospital, sending his body into shock and killing him within hours in July 2007.
Mr Richards, a former IT consultant from Signal Hayes Road, Walmley, was given the drug to combat the side effects of the chemotherapy treatment he was receiving.
Determined to mark what would have been his 40th birthday, widow Lisa, aged 38, spent weeks organising a charity football match at Sutton Town FC in Villa fan Paul’s memory and to raise cash for cancer.
She said the day was “poignant” and had kept her busy.
“When I got up I shed a few tears but since then I’ve been too busy to think about things. I think it will hit me more later.” Yesterday’s match involved a team led by Paul’s 19-year-old son Benjamin, who recently signed for Hinckley Utd, taking on a team of ex-professionals.
Paul and Lisa’s daughters, Mia, nine and Ellie, five were both cheering from the sidelines.
Despite the inevitable sadness, Lisa said she had enjoyed organising the fund-raiser in support of Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Charity and the Sickle Cell Anaemia Charity.
She said: “I’ve loved every minuted. It’s been stressful, but I’ve loved it and there’s more to come. We’ve had a lot of support, the club have been fantastic letting us use the pitch and room for free.
“There’s a lot of kind hearted people out there.”
Fellow cancer patient Baljit Singh Sunner, aged 36, from Stechford, who had leukaemia, was also given the same dose of dangerous amphotericin as Paul and the men died within hours of each other.
The deaths occurred due to confusion over the correct dosage of the drug. New junior doctor Dr Kiran Tawana prescribed the drug after referring to an internet version of a medicine manual and nurses Vongai Gondo and Catherine Kunasta then made up the prescription without double checking.
Dr Tawana received a five-year warning from the General Medical Council while both nurses were not disciplined because “they said they were sorry”.
An inquest jury ruled the two deaths were accidental in which neglect played a part with gross failures by medical staff not to seek alternative advice on drug and dosage.
