BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake

Subject: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 08:48 AM

Actually this is the third pharmacy mistake I have encountered but it is the most serious of them all.
After losing all strength and motion of my left leg along with agonizing pain in the hip and knee, the doctor prescribed a pain killer and a sleep enhancer until I get to see a specialist.

When I picked up the prescription both medications were nearly identical in that they were little white pills. Yep they were were both in the wrong bottle. One I was to take once at night and the other 5 or 6 times a day. After the second day I was so sick I could barely drive to the drug store to determine if my suspicions were valid. They were. The third day and night involved much vomiting and migraine pain but the worst symptoms of the overdose of the one medication is that it caused all smell and taste to be a sickening burnt plastic and plastic flavor.

This is the second mistake by a Rite Aid pharmacy in the last 3 months. The last time they gave me someone else's prescription with the other person's name on the bottle.

Crimonitely! Does this happen to you too?

Poison is my latest scurge. My neighbor has refused my one and only request to stop hiring people to spray poison neuro toxin pesticides and herbacides along the border where our garden and swimming pool are only 6 feet away. I have registered as a pesticide senstive victim due to a pesticide toxic shock episode from my childhood that nearly claimed both hands and my wife's miscarraige after stepping barefoot in cockraoach poison that the apartment manager pout on our kitchen floor, but my neighbor says all she knows is that she has a lawn to care for. Her lawn on the north side of the pool fence is only mud and moss. When Scotts Chemical sprays it gags my dog and smells strong 60 feet away. I have spoken with the lawn care company 7 times to no avail and my neighbor will not dicuss it and merely says call the poison company.

As of yet I can not get a lawyer to represent me or even get some kind of restraining order desite the fact a State Police Captain advises I bring a civil suit.

As for Rite Aid, I do not know what to do. After 5 days I am now lucid enough to convey what just happened to me.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 09:04 AM

I had a pharmacy accidentally double my dosage on a fairly potent drug. When I brought it back - my doctor caught the error because my blood pressure jumped - they offered to refund my money or replace the prescription. I had to sign a form that I wouldn't sue to get the refund. That was a few years back. Now my insurance provides a mail order service and it is far more convenient, cheaper, and accurate.

Donuel,
Keep your dog inside when the spray is going down. Wait a few hours and he will be fine. If he is not walking on the wet spray he is in no danger. I have had the products sprayed on my property and they are safe for humans and people. Unfortunately, they wash off into the ground water and eventually end up in the ocean. So I stopped but I still have the place treated for ticks. After Jacqui's bout with Lyme Disease, it is worth it.

You seem to have ongoing battles with your neighbors over a variety of problems. Choose your battles carefully or you look like a crank. As to the pharmacy, after one error, make it your business to check each prescription BEFORE you take it. Errors happen. And why continue to use the same pharmacy if they have made three major mistakes?

Mary

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 09:18 AM

The kids end up swallowing a fair amount of pool water unintentionally each year. What kind of father would allow the spraying of poison in the pool to go unabated? I'll risk being called a crank than be respondsible for the early death of my children.

Scotts has used terrible poisons that are not safe at any level.
Some like '7' are now not used any longer but another they use now gives a 47% greater liklyhood of pancreatic cancer.

I look upon my neighbor, who ignores my pleading, as a person who hires a hit man and claims no respondsibility or knowledge of what the poisoners do. It would cost her nothing to do the right thing, in fact whe would save $300 a year.

The method that pesticides emply to kill insects are neuro toxins.
They do build up in animal fat.

I expect that the safe claims come from the companies selling them and no where else.

Things that are toxic at parts per million are generally still toxic at parts per billion. That statistical shell game needs more exposure.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: MikeL2
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 09:26 AM

hi

We live in the UK and both my wife and I have monthly prescriptions for several medications each.

We have both been on these for several years. The medications do get changed occasionally by the doctors on review.

We tend to use only two pharmacies to fill the prescriptions.

In all the years we have been having prescriptions we have only ever had a couple of incidents of the same very minor error.

My wife has glaucoma and receives three different types of eyedrops each month. One of these are drops for "tired" eyes. On two occasions we were given drops of 3% strength instead of 5%.

We checked with the pharmacy who said that they didn't have the stronger drops in stock and supplied the weaker ones knowing that they wouldn't be harmful. The doctor confirmed that this would be OK if stocks are short.

We believe that our service is second to none. Long may it continue to be so.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Deckman
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 11:08 AM

I live here in the Seattle area. Some ten years ago, when "Rite-Aid" first appeared, many mistakes happened. My personal doctor told me NOT to use Rite-Aid." bob(deckman)nelson

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 11:28 AM

In the UK that spraying would be an actionable nuisance.

The prescription error would most probably be actionable negligence (we don't know what precautions are taken).

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 11:31 AM

When our son was a couple of years old, a pharmacy erroneously gave us the wrong RX. Had the pills not been the size of Necco Wafers--way to large for his gullet--we might never have known. It was only then that my wife noted this was someone else's heart medication. We now check every bottle every time we take medicine--even one we take daily.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 11:40 AM

I can't even imagine downing a pill without having examined the bottle label's information and the instructions for intake.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 11:49 AM

Have you tested the pool water, Donuel, to see if it is safe for your children to swim in?

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 12:56 PM

Nearly all pills these days come in blister packs with the identity of the medication printed on the foil. How did you come to be dispensed loose pills in a bottle?

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:02 PM

Along lines of refuting some implications...
No I have not tested the water for atypical toxins other than by the powerful smell of the pesticides with my own nose.

Ebbie,
When similar looking pills are each in the wrong bottle, there is very little that even the most cautious and diligent consumer can do to catch the error. The taste was unusually numbing which is what led me to return to the pharmacy.

Trying to get a lawyer so far has proved fruitless. They are all swinging for the fences with hopes of a million dollar personal injury suit so they can make an easy quarter million $.

My idea of the perfect lawyer is Rachel Maddow.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:07 PM

The only pills that I ever had that came in blister packs were Levaquin, and that was the drug that immediately preceeded crippling symptoms that I have had for the last 12 years.

Short answer is that most non antibiotics are dispensed loose in bottles in my experience.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:13 PM

Jack, I don't know about you, but I have NEVER been given the pills I get in blister packs; always loose in the bottle. This, out of six prescriptions. This is from CVS, one of the biggest and (I believe) most respected pharmacy chains in the US.

I suppose this has to do with the particular medications prescribed and the practices of their respective manufacturers.

But there's nothing untoward, unusual, or questionable about "loose in bottle" packaging.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:20 PM

My post disappeared.
All my prescriptions come loose in bottles. But I did notice that Micca's were all in blister packs. Maybe Jack is in the UK?

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Ebbie
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:23 PM

In my experience (in the US) it is only over the counter medications that come in blister packs. I have never received any from a prescription.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:26 PM

I asked about testing Donuel because it seems you are trying to get a lawyer to go after Scotts Chemical based on strong fumes that affect you and your dog. If you had tested the pool water and found high concentrations of a toxic chemical from the spraying, you would have a better chance of getting someone to represent you. A lawsuit against a huge corporation which is applying products approved by the government for lawncare is going nowhere unless you can prove harm. The cost of such a lawsuit would be prohibitive; it would take years to getthrough the appeals process; and it is very unlikely you will win. That is why no lawyer is willing to touch it.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:32 PM

Re: the medications. Did you contact your doctor to discuss the overmedication? Some of this stuff can send your blood pressure sky high and cause a heart attack or stroke.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 01:59 PM

I would also worry about other organ and gland failure problems caused by overdose. You should get your liver, kidneys and adrenals checked pronto.

Re the pool you would need to provide proof that the chemicals being used by your neighbour are reaching your pool, either by airborne spray or run off. Got a video camera?

Donuel, having lost a daughter from complications of an autoimmune disorder, I advise you minimise your children's exposure to those chemicals. My kids have a battery of autoimmune issues as do my cousins, nieces, nephews. 4 generations of my family live/d in a town that was once proudly hailed as the chemical capital of the south each subsequent generation getting sicker and sicker.

This is just one of the products produced in my home town when I was a teenager. http://www.shellfacts.com/article.php?id=782

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: GUEST,Jack Campin
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 02:04 PM

Seems like US practice is way behind the UK here. Marion and I have been through a lot of pills over the last few years (antidepressants, antibiotics, painkillers, heart-related medication), and the only ones I can remember coming as loose pills in the last ten years were a penicillin-alike, an OTC form of low-dose aspirin, and OTC vitamin/mineral supplements.

I find the blister packs a bit too time-consuming - I was taking six or seven pills a day after my heart attack. So I pop a whole bunch of them out at one go and put them in a diary dispenser or a film cassette holder with a torn-off bit of the box to label it. But they do mean you know what you've got.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: MikeL2
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 02:23 PM

Hi

I said earlier that both my wife and I have several medications each. We are in the UK and all our medications come in blister packs. Most of them are marked with the day of the week which helps if you forget if you have taken a tablet or not.

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 02:30 PM

For sanitation and safety it makes sense.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Bert
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 02:49 PM

...Does this happen to you too?...

Almost every time with several different pharmacies, they mix up milligrams with micrograms. I have to check EVERY TIME.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 03:58 PM

The marketing info said that most of the drugs effects should be gone after three days but I still have some smell and taste disorders and a slight tremor in the fingers. I gotta admit I felt worse than if I had a bad flu but lying in bed for days did heal my leg enough so that I can now use a cane and lift the painful leg on its own power.

If anything good could come of this I would suggest that drug info pamphlets should include what the drug should taste like. If I had seen that info I would have known immediately that a mistake had been made. However most people would probably just down a pil with water without tasting. Its probably peculiar that I chew pills as a rule or crush if the pill is huge like some Ibuprophen tablets.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 04:08 PM

Most of them are pretty foul tasting. Again - read the directions. Some are meant to be broken down in the intestines. Crushing the pill can cause adverse reactions.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: mouldy
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 04:19 PM

My daughter's a UK pharmacist, I've been into the dispensery, and the majority of drugs seem to be packaged in blister packs, as far as I can tell.

My daughter has told me that doctors sometimes have been known to prescribe the wrong dosage/strength. Also that on occasions they will prescribe drugs that react with others, or which aren't appropriate for that particular patient. (These are very RARE occurrences, but pharmacists have to be on the watch for them).
Dispensing errors have been known to happen at busy times when the drug being dispensed is in a very similar colour pack to a different strength of the same thing, for example, (ie, pale blue next to grey), or if the drug names are similar. ALL dispensing should be checked by the pharmacist before it is given out, if not dispensed by the pharmacist themselves.

The only mix-up I have encountered was from our doctor's dispensary (where there is no actual pharmacist) when they gave me the asthma meds for a young boy, as well as only half of my own script!

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Donuel
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 04:24 PM

I have to agree that blister packs are far safer than the old bottle method. Gee maybe the drug companies can't afford the safer packaging.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 04:45 PM

For the past two years my thyroid has been up and down like a yoyo. Mydoctor changes my prescription and describes the color of the pill to me so there are no errors. I have gone from white to yellow to purples and pinks - all vividly bright and gross.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: John on the Sunset Coast
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 05:52 PM

"Almost every time with several different pharmacies, they mix up milligrams with micrograms. I have to check EVERY TIME"

My experience is that many inhaled medications are dispensed as micrograms, but pills, capsules and liquids usually are measured in milligrams. As these are premade, I think there is little chance of a mix up in that respect. Do the chemists or pharmacies you go to do their own compounding? That's truly rare these days in Southern California, but I would think that's the only way for such an error.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 06:03 PM

Wow, Donuel, what a scary and cautionary tale of your pharmacy's error(s)! To me, the lessons are to double check the medications that are given to you by the pharmacy and to avoid Rite Aid.

The UK blister-pack approach sounds safer, but it obviously adds cost to the manufacture, bulk to storage, and packaging to the waste stream.

For recent prescriptions that I've had (in Tucson and California, from CVS), the label printed at the pharmacy includes a description of the appearance of the pill, like "This is a YELLOW, OBLONG-shaped CAPSULE imprinted with G on one side and 5027 on the other."

This kind of information is also available on sites like http://www.rxlist.com. On that site, you can not only find detailed information on the medication you've been prescribed (including that appearance information), but search based on the appearance of your pill, if you have a pill you need to identify.

The thing is that most of us would assume that the pharmacy put the right stuff in the bottle. I'll be sure to double-check in the future!!

~ Becky in Long Beach

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 06:17 PM

That would be "Arizona and California"...

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: GUEST,Donuel needs a cookie
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 06:29 PM

I just got a registered letter from my neighbor's daughter regarding my 3 requests to cease poison spraying:

"Please leave my mother alone. You are now commiting harrasment.
You have been warned!"


Jeez I think radical Arabs are probably more decent and friendly than my immediate neighbors.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: SINSULL
Date: 23 Feb 10 - 07:20 PM

Donuel,
She is doing nothing illegal nor does she plan to stop using a lawncare company. The local police official told you as much when he told you to pursue a civil suit.
The warning means that the daughter has discussed the matter with a lawyer and you are on notice to leave her mother alone.
Either take your complaint to court or drop it. The next step will be an Order of Protection which will make your life inconvenient at best.
Lawn companies generally treat a property once every six weeks. They do not always spray pesticides - often the treatment is simply lime or fertilizer. When you see the truck, close your windows and keep your child and pets inside for 4 hours and all will be well.
Or fight City Hall and lose.
Mary, a disinterested observer.

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: mouldy
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 03:39 AM

In the UK most pharmacists are not now allowed to make their own meds, despite being trained to do certain basics. It's all to do with the risks of contamination and, I suppose, clinical error (very unlikely on the simpler meds they'd be doing). They are all usually now made up, along with "special" out of the ordinary scripts, at the big hospital pharmacies and then shipped back out. This of course is costing the NHS even more. Even things like Simple Cream, which they learn to do in their first year at uni, are not allowed. (My dad was a dispenser in the 1950s/60s and he used to make up quite a few things). The most they seem to do now is decant from larger bulk containers into the smaller dispensing ones, and add water to the powdered antibiotic mixtures for kids etc.
The move here is to get the pharmacists more and more involved in frontline basic healthcare. Some pharmacists are now being trained to prescribe for minor ailments. Most of them do medication reviews on behalf of GPs too.

Of course the stuff that's available over the counter and which is not varies from country to country. I can't buy an aspirin/paracetamol combination in New Zealand, (although I can buy them separately), but we got sold a hospital-strength antibiotic in Greece, 4 years ago, for a water infection one of our party had. It was so strong it made them vomit after 2 doses, so we stopped it on advice from my daughter, who said the only time she had come across that was when she was doing her hospital placements!

Other countries won't allow anything with codeine unless prescribed, because it's an opiate.

Funny old world.

Andrea

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Lizzie Cornish 1
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 03:50 AM

Donuel, you should phone the Head Office of the company concerned and tell them what happened. Then you should ask for a detailed explanation as to WHY and HOW it happened, as you need this information to send to your lawyer.

It will put the shit up them faster than you can say 'pharmaceutical', get them running to investigate and bring in new legislation to ensure that all their drugs are double checked before they are dispensed. This happens in Boots the Chemist, and I've watched them doing it. One person dispenses it, and one person then doublechecks it. It should be done in all chemists. Sadly, it's not.

Of course, triple checking things by doing the final check yourself is even better....and your story has made me think very seriously about always doing that from now on, as it's so easy to just get home, unwrap the tablets and trust that everyone in the drugs chain, from the doctor downwards, knows what they're doing..

So thank you for that...

As to you neighbour and the lawn...I'd move house. Really, I would. The stress that you're being given is just not worth the hassle. You are obviously highly sensitive to many drugs, chemicals etc....and to live next door to someone who is so de-sensitisted is not doing you much good. In the long run, you need to do what's best for your health, both chemically, and emotionally.

I hope you get a happy outcome, eventually. x

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: MikeL2
Date: 24 Feb 10 - 07:07 AM

Hi

In the UK as well as normally prescribing blister packs that does reduce the chance of error, all packs should ( and in my case always do) contain a leaflet that describes in detail the properties of the particular tablet/etc that is in the package.

This contains things like physical description of the contents, size strength etc.
It also describes possible side effects in great detail.

It clearly tells people that if there is any form of reaction eg vomitting etc etc to stop taking the medication and get back to your doctor.

Only recently I had a problem where I was prescribed Solaraze for actinic keratosis in my head. ( Too much sun over the years living and holidaying in Spain).

I was told that I had to use the cream for two months and then have a review as to whether the treatment was working successfully. After six weeks all of a sudden my scalp came out in a severe rash. I stopped using the cream went to the doctors and he prescribed antibiotics and very intense moisturisers.

Unfortunately and perhaps ironically I had to cancel our Spanish holiday that we were due to go on two days after the outbreak.

This was covered and explained in the leaflet that went with the medication.

Bottom line thankfully is that the medication had actually done the job before the rash erupted.

Cheers

MikeL2

You are strongly advised to read this

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: MikeL2
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 06:58 AM

hi

Please ignore the last line in my previous post.....it is a remnant of an unwanted cut & paste....freudian though hey???

cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: BS: I survived a Pharmacy mistake
From: Bert
Date: 25 Feb 10 - 07:20 AM

John, you say ...many inhaled medications are dispensed as micrograms, but pills, capsules and liquids usually are measured in milligrams...

I take levothyroxine for surgically induced hypothyroidism. It comes in pill form. Pill used to be specified in milligrams, then they started using micrograms. I take quite a high dose of 300 micrograms or 0.3 milligrams. More often than not they get it wrong, usually giving me 30 micrograms.      

Check your prescription every time.

Another thing that doesn't give me much confidence in the whole industry is that the pills come packaged in bottles of 100 but the doctors prescribe them monthly, that is in multiples of 30. Don't these guys talk to one another?