New Jersey Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Law Offices of Scott D. Grossman : Serving Monmouth County, Bergen County

I found this article on courant.com about a report recently released by standard-setting organization for the pharmaceutical and dietary supplement industry, U.S. Pharmacopeiahas, or USP, which found that there are at least 3000 pairs of drugs with similar names, which is contributing to the high incidence of pharmacy dispensing mistakes. Here are a few examples:

-Zestril (high blood pressure) and  Zetia (cholesterol)

-Lamactil (epilepsy) and Lamisil (fungal infections)

-Celebrex (arthritis) and Celexa (antidepressant)

-Zantac (reflux) and Xanax (anxiety)

Scary, right? The article offers some helpful tips to protect yourself from a mix-up with potentially deadly consequences:

-Don't have your prescription telephoned in

-Make sure the script is printed in English (as opposed to Latin code or illegible scribble)

-Keep a copy of your prescription

-Double check the pills and the label BEFORE you leave the pharmacy

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KLTV-7 out of Tyler-Longview, Texas reported today that a Walgreen pharmacy filled a prescription for the antibiotic Augmentin four times the prescribed dosage for a five-month old baby. When the baby's mother gave her daughter the first dosage, the baby was vomiting and was lethargic. The label on the prescription said that the baby was to get two teaspoons twice a day of the antibiotic. The baby's doctor prescribed 1/2 teaspoon twice a day. When the pharmacist was confronted with the error, his response was that they were really busy the night the prescription was filled and "accidents happen." Unbelievable. While the baby will be okay, it's yet another lesson to the prescription consuming public how vigilant we all must be when it comes to our health.

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A report out of Columbus, Georgia late last week revealed that a woman went to her local CVS Pharmacy to fill a Vicadin prescription for her son who sprained his ankle. The prescription was for twenty pills, but the pharmacist put 90 pills in the bottle. Horrified, and afraid of what could happen if someone got his hands on these excess pills, she called the pharmacy to report it. At that time she was told to either bring them back or throw them out, and when she told the pharmacist that she might not be able to get back to the store that night, she was told to, “Do what you want with them. Keep them. It doesn’t matter.” This did not sit well with the worried mother who then contacted the Georgia Narcotics Agency, who advised that she return the excess pills to the CVS, and when she went to do just that, the pharmacist refused to take them back. What an incredulous error in light of the fact pain killer prescriptions are to be checked by three different pharmacy staffers, including the pharmacist.

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When I read this story, I was horrified by what happened to a newly pregnant St. Louis woman who went to Walgreens to fill a prescription for prenatal vitamins and was instead given a potent chemotherapy drug that killed her unborn child. The woman and her husband filed a lawsuit seeking some form of justice against the powerful pharmacy chain, alleging that Walgreens failed to properly supervise pharmacy personnel who dispensed the medicine, failed to verify the prescription with her physician, and failed to follow appropriate protocol.

The couple alleges in their complaint that she began to feel ill and began vomiting about a month into her pregnancy and assumed it was morning sickness, all the while taking what she thought were the prenatal vitamins.  About a month later, she miscarried her baby. It is alleged that her unborn child was killed due to the ingesting of the potent chemotherapy drug.  After her miscarriage, she continued to take the chemotherapy drugs (still thinking they were prenatal vitamins) because she believed that the vitamins would prepare her for a subsequent pregnancy. It wasn't until she telephoned Walgreens for a refill that the pharmacist realized the mistake.  Please read the full article.  I implore you to write in about your own personal stories pertaining to pharmacy mistakes and errors and your opinions about what has happened to this couple.

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