When the problems governing cyclosporine were first recognized, the Eastern Health Authority staff didn't take a quick action, unveils a review of drug testing errors that affected a lot of patients in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Internal report said, “Initial concerns were raised on Jan. 18, 2010, yet it was not determined until Feb. 12, 2010, that one of the analyzers was providing incorrect results. The executive of Eastern Health was not advised in a timely manner of the testing errors”.

It was only after a 14 year-old receiving the immunosuppressive drug got admitted to intensive care, that Eastern Health's CEO mentioned about her not being aware of the fact that some of the patients were given too much of cyclosporine.

The child was admitted on last Friday and is still in the intensive care unit of St. John’s, according to the Health Authority officials on Tuesday.

Cyclosporine is used to prevent organ rejection in transplant patients and symptoms of autoimmune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis can be cure with its usage. Most importantly it is used to suppress the immune system.

About 212 patients might be given overdose of the drug, which lead to the kidney damage.

Vickie Kaminski, Eastern Health's CEO said, “We take it very seriously. We are not happy at all that we're in this position. The lab did not document an occurrence. They, they knew that they had this issue. They did not document an occurrence”.