State: Medication Error Caused Wadena Home Death

WADENA, Minn. (AP) - A state report says a Wadena nursing home made three serious medication mistakes within 16 days, including one that led to an 82-year-old woman's death.

The Star Tribune reports that Health Department investigators are placing blame with the home, Fair Oaks Lodge in Wadena. During the investigation, officials found a medication error rate of 18 percent.

The resident who died was an Alzheimer's patient. The report says she was given three medications last June 1, causing her blood pressure to drop. She was taken by ambulance to an emergency room, then transferred to an intensive care unit. She died of pneumonia on June 7.

Fair Oaks' interim administrator tells the newspaper she would respond to the report's findings later Friday.