Supplier says nitrogen delivered to nursing home by mistake

Wednesday, December 13th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DAYTON, Ohio (AP) _ The company that supplied oxygen to a nursing home where three residents died did deliver a nitrogen tank to the home by mistake, but it was clearly labeled, a company official said Wednesday.

The tank also was not designed to be hooked up to the oxygen system, said Bob Yeoman, a BOC Gases vice president.

The three residents of Carriage-by-the-Lake nursing home in Bellbrook died after becoming ill last Thursday, and three others remain hospitalized. All had been on the oxygen system.

A gas cylinder that was found hooked into the oxygen system had an oxygen label partially covered by a smaller nitrogen label, according to Bob Miles, an assistant fire chief from nearby Washington Township.

Preliminary autopsy results have not ruled out the possibility that the residents were asphyxiated by nitrogen, Greene County Coroner Kevin Sharrett has said.

Yeoman said no one from BOC Gases hooked up the mistaken tank to the oxygen system.

``It was a mistake in delivery,'' Yeoman said. ``It was labeled nitrogen. It was clearly an issue of an obvious nitrogen cylinder being installed in the system.''

He said someone would have had to alter the connection on the nitrogen cylinder before it would fit into the oxygen system. ``It wasn't us,'' he said.

Robert Gill, a spokesman for the Sparks, Md.-based Integrated Health Services Inc., which owns the nursing home, said the facility has for years received only oxygen tanks and that its contract with BOC Gases called for that.

Gill said the nursing home terminated its contract with BOC Gases on Friday.