Articles Posted in Pharmacy Error

A 58-year-old Lakeland grandmother is dead and the family is suing CVS Pharmacy, alleging that she was given a wrong prescription for a powerful opoid pain reliever that should have gone to another patient.

Lakeland Pharmacy ErrorAccording to the Lakeland Ledger, the woman filled four prescriptions at a CVS Pharmacy, but was given five medications in all. One of those medications, a prescription for hydrocone 5-500 mg, was not meant to go to her, but was meant for another patient.

A month after filling the prescriptions in April 2011, the woman was dead. The lawsuit claims the autopsy revealed that the woman had died of “multiple drug intoxication.” The suit has named CVS Pharmacy and CVS Caremark Corp. as defendants and is seeking more than $15,000 in damages.

This story comes on the heels of news that the Florida House passed a bill that would raise the number of pharmacy technicians that can be assigned to a pharmacist from a maximum of three to six. It would also eliminate the Florida Board of Pharmacy’s power to lower the ratio in cases where it sees problems.
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It pays to double-check what your pharmacy hands you.

A Miami Beach woman learned that lesson the hard way after she discovered, too late, that the prescription her pharmacy had given her belonged to somebody else.

It all started when the woman, who has asthma, went to her local CVS pharmacy to get her inhaler. After receiving the prescription, she brought the unopened bag back home and placed it next to her bed.

She had an asthma attack the following night and was unpleasantly surprised to discover after opening the prescription bag that she had been given somebody else’s pills instead of her inhaler. She was having a potentially deadly asthma attack and didn’t have any medication to stop it.

“I was like okay, I need to breathe and I don’t have my medication. What do I need to do?” she told CBS Miami News.
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