Doctor Mohammad Sharier mistakenly gave a child opioids following a circumcision procedure and was later found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct
A dad said his baby ‘would not wake up’ after a doctor mistakenly gave him oxycodone instead of paracetamol following a circumcision.
Doctor Mohammad Sharier was suspended by Australia’s New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Tuesday following the March 2023 procedure. The tribunal heard Dr Sharier performed the surgery at his Gentle Procedures Clinic in Revesby and that he gave a father a 0.5ml dose of a substance, which the doctor believed was Panadol.
The dad then gave his son a dose, via a syringe. But an hour after the procedure, Dr Sharier found the substance was oxycodone.
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It was heard Dr Sharier told the dad he was concerned that he had given the child “bigger kids Panadol.” The baby would “not wake up,” the tribunal heard and the parents then took the child to Liverpool Hospital.
Two doses of Naloxone were then administered in a bid to reverse the effects of the opioids. During the tribunal, the dad said while in a phone call, Dr Sharier told him to “watch for symptoms” and that if the boy “feels drowsy” to bring him back to the clinic.
The dad said the conversation lasted just two minutes and that Dr Sharier appeared “quite calm.” He added the child’s mum called a midwife at Westmead Hospital who said they needed to take the baby to the emergency department of whatever hospital was closest.
The tribunal decision said: “On the way they tried to call Dr Sharier several times on his mobile but no one picked up the phone. They then called Revesby Clinic and spoke to Dr Sharier.
“He told them [the baby] had been given oxycodone and the mother asked him to text the name to her. He did so.”
The dad told the tribunal that the doctor had not told them to take the child to the hospital, reports news.com.au. Tribunal panel members found Dr Sharier’s actions on the day of the procedure had been a “very significant and serious departure from an acceptable response to the crisis which he had created.”
The decision added: “Dr Sharier made the medication error, he did not recall he had three other bottles of oxycodone on the premises, he did not have a drug register, the drugs were not properly stored, and the opened bottle was next to Panadol Children in his treatment room.”
Dr Sharier was found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct and cancelled his registration for six months. Following the six months, he will be subject to several conditions, which includes regular audits and education requirements.
He was charged $500 AUD (£243), paid to NSW Health, for supplying a poison not packaged in accordance with proper policy. He was also fined $2,000 AUD (£973) to be paid to NSW for failing to keep a register of drugs of addiction and failing to properly store an addictive drug.