The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice has indefinitely suspended a respiratory therapist from practicing in the state after determining she failed to properly prepare a patient for transfer to the ICU, The Star Tribune reported Dec. 7.
The license suspension is related to a patient's death in November 2021.
According to a board investigation cited by the news outlet, Christine Fairchild was making preparations to transfer a patient in the emergency room to the ICU. The patient was on a ventilator, with the investigation finding he was "not properly oxygenated or ventilated for a period of time" and left "unable to breathe on his own" due to Ms. Fairchild's "failure to properly prepare [the patient] for a safe transfer to the ICU," the suspension order said.
The order did not specify what was improper about the care Ms. Fairchild provided. It did not specify the hospital where the incident occurred, though board records list Ms. Fairchild's last place of employment as Cuyuna Regional Medical Center in Crosby, Minn. A spokesperson with the medical center did not comment on whether the death occurred at the hospital, according to the Star Tribune.
The suspension order said Ms. Fairchild was fired from her place of employment in December of 2021, weeks after the patient died. She reserves the right to petition and have her license reinstated.