Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyer Blog

Woman Told to Take 4 Pills Instead of 1 in Anti-Anxiety Med Error

September 20, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A woman who was given a prescription for medication to help ease her anxiety before a dental appointment now has good reason to be skeptical of pharmacies.

The woman was given a prescription by her dentist to take prior to a dental appointment for 0.25 milligrams of Triazolam. When she picked up her medication from a local pharmacy, she assumed that the instructions on the label were accurate, and after paying for the medicine, was not consulted by a pharmacist. The label instructed the woman to take four pills an hour before treatment.

The woman reports losing memory just after her dental appointment began. She does not recall a friend driving her home or the rest of the evening. She credits her boyfriend having stayed over for the relatively uneventful rest of the day. The woman’s friend said she had seemed “completely normal,” which concerned the woman to think what could have happened under the circumstances. According to pharmacy experts, amnesia is a well known side effect of an overdose of the drug Triazolam. Other serious side effects include cardiac arrest, coma and seizures.

Makers of Tylenol Announce New Label Warnings in Attempt to Reduce Overdoses

September 13, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Johnson & Johnson recently made the decision to make some changes in the way it labels Tylenol, specifically in regards to adding additional warnings of the potential dangers the drug may pose.

The warning will make it explicitly clear that the over-the-counter drug contains acetaminophen, a pain-relieving ingredient that’s the nation’s leading cause of sudden liver failure.

These preventative measures are believed to be related to the fact that the company is reportedly currently facing more than 85 personal injury lawsuits in federal court blaming Tylenol for various liver injuries and deaths.

Near $1 Million Award in Unauthorized Palliative Care Death

September 6, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A Harford County jury recently awarded nearly $1 million to the estate and surviving family members of a woman who allegedly received excessive pain medication following a leg ulcer surgery.

According to reports regarding the case, the plaintiffs alleged that the doctors at the Harford County Hospital administered morphine, oxycodone, and other narcotics to the woman under the mistaken belief that they had received permission to provide palliative care to the woman, rather than attempting to strive for the woman’s full recovery. The hospital reportedly denies the allegations of negligence, and plans to appeal the judgment.

While only very limited factual information was reported regarding this case, it seems that the family is alleging that the hospital administered a form of unauthorized palliative care, which resulted in the death of the patient. Palliative care is distinct from assisted suicide, and as such is protected by U.S. Supreme Court case law. Essentially, it occurs when caregivers can no longer perform additional or helpful medical procedures to improve the patient’s prognosis, so they instead focus on alleviating the pain as best as they can. Oftentimes, these high levels of pain medications can lead to death.

Defective Blood Glucose Monitor Test Strips Pose Major Potential Risk to Diabetics

August 29, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Individuals in Ireland with diabetes may be at a serious risk of injecting themselves with dangerously high levels of insulin, due to an error in glucose monitoring kits recently discovered.

According to the authorities, some 4,100 boxes of test strips, which are directly used to measure glucose levels in the blood of diabetics, are being recalled due to a manufacturing error which could give a false reading. The strips were part of a faulty batch of GlucoMen LX Sensor test strips.

The strips, which are used as home kits, may result in an overestimation of the diabetic’s blood glucose level, which could potentially result in them injecting themselves with too much insulin.

Mother Sues Pharmacy over 6 Year Old Daughter’s Death in 10x Correct Dosage Case

August 22, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A mother is reportedly suing her longtime pharmacy, claiming that a dosage error led to her daughter’s death.

The woman claims that her 6 year old daughter died after taking a dose of morphine 10 times higher than what she was prescribed. The little girl had been taking the liquid painkiller during the course of treatment for sickle cell anemia. Sadly, this tragedy comes on the heels of a report regarding similar errors in the administration of pain medications in young children.

The lawsuit alleges that the young girl died in April 2012, just one day after taking the hyper concentrated dosage. It further claims that the girl’s cause of death was officially ruled “morphine toxicity.”

Report Reveals 36 Serious Incidents of Harm from Medication Related Errors

August 13, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Ontario hospitals recently released a new report detailing some 36 incidents that occurred last year where medication-related mistakes led to patients suffering severe harm or even death.

Among the reported incidents, patients were harmed when given incredible overdoses of narcotic painkillers, received the incorrect drug, or were administered an additional (and therefore dangerous) dose.

Of all of the incidents, ten patients died, while the remaining 26 suffered harm so severe that it required life saving interventions to correct, caused a major disability, or led to a shortened life span.

Study Examines Cause of Errors in Opioid Infusion Errors in Children

August 8, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Of all of the types of pharmacy and medication errors that are made, some of the most frightening to think about are those that occur with children.

One recent study (registration required) focused on errors made with pain medicine, specifically opioid infusions in children.

The researchers in the study analyzed patient safety and pharmacy data in search of potential critical incidents in patients receiving opioid transfusions over a five year period, from December 2004 to December 2009. Those incidents that scored at least an 8 out of 10 for seriousness were then further investigated in order to conduct an analysis regarding the cause of the error.

The researchers initially identified 166 potential incidents. Out of those, 58 incidents included one (45) or more than one (13) relevant critical incidents. According to the researchers, the most common incident was opioid administration error, which had occurred in 39 of the cases cases (67%).

Fourteen of the incidents were isolated for root cause analysis, which identified 31 root causes. The most frequent and significant ones involved defective preprinted order sheets for the opioid infusions; lack of nursing guidelines for the infusion adjustment rate and weaning off the medication; and inadequate policies and guidelines for monitoring and recording pain, vital signs and arousal. Most significantly, the errors were attributable to an issue with policies/procedures, communication errors, environmental/equipment issues, and inadequate training.

While researchers were not able to study the potential impact of fatigue because the study was retrospective, they did identify one major problem, which involved the transferring of patients between units. The errors were more likely to occur at that point in time because there was no standard set of policies and procedures, increasing the potential likelihood for error.

New Heparin Labels Intended to Reduce Fatal Overdoses

July 25, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A recent article in Pharmacy Practice News discussed ways in which updated labeling standards for Heparin Sodium Injection and Heparin Lock Flush Solution may not eradicate the problems associated with overdose completely. One major reason being that some of the older problematic versions of the label remain in pharmacy stocks.

According to information on the relevant organization’s website, the new labeling requirements, which took effect this May, require that the new heparin products clearly indicate the concentration of the medication, followed by how much medication is in each milliliter (mL).

Prior labels stated the per mL amount, with the total container volume appearing elsewhere, thus leading to errors when practitioners mistook the per mL amount as the total volume in the vial. This sort of mistake led to dangerous heparin overdoses.

For example, in one case a patient died due to bleeding in the brain, which occurred as a result of two practitioners mistakenly thinking that a 10-mL vial of heparin held a total of 1,000 units, when each vial actually contained 10,000 units (1,000 units/mL). As a result, they administered 30,000 units to the patient instead of 3,000.

Lawmakers Reverse Decision to Shut Down Pharmacy Blamed for Causing Heart Attack

July 18, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

Massachusetts lawmakers, and specifically the state’s Board of Registration in Pharmacy, have been under increased scrutiny following the deadly meningitis outbreak that occurred last year.

Prior to the outbreak, the regulators changed course regarding a decision to shut down a Massachusetts pharmacy whose medication error sent a teenager to the emergency room with a heart attack. While they claim to still be investigating, they have yet to take disciplinary action against the responsible pharmacy.

According to state records, in July of 2011 Royal Palm Specialty Pharmacy reportedly accidentally gave a patient thyroid medication that was 1,000 times too concentrated. This devastating error required hospitalization for serious heart complications. The board reportedly only found out about the error after the boy’s mother called to complain, four months later.

According to state documents, instead of supplying 10 microgram capsules of the relevant thyroid medication, the pharmacy apparently provided capsules containing 10,000 micrograms.

After taking the drug, the teenager had to be taken to an emergency room four times and hospitalized twice in August 2011 for heart problems. The symptoms still plague the young man, as he reportedly continues to experience generalized weakness and heart palpitations.

Investigators found that the pharmacy did not report the overdose to the state board, even though they are required to report any errors that lead to death or serious injury within 15 days. A pharmacist for the company says that she did not report the error, because she did not know the extent of the harm to the young man, as she could not get in touch with his mother. The pharmacist has since been reprimanded by the state for the error.

Dangerous Drug Disaster Narrowly Avoided When Vitamin Substituted with Resuscitation Medication

July 11, 2013 | Lebowitz & Mzhen

A Washington woman narrowly avoided a potentially tragic prescription error, when she picked up her usual prescription for the vitamin B12. The label on both the bag and the container even contained the correct name: Cyanocobalamin.

The woman noticed that the color of the actual liquid was different, in addition to the cap on the bottle, but she dismissed her concerns as a potential change in manufacturer.

Then, as usual, the woman’s son came over to help her with the injections. After inspecting the bottle, he asked the woman about it. Fortunately, due to his prior medical training, her son realized that what the woman had was actually not the usual B12 vitamin injection, but rather the dangerous drug atropine, which is used to resuscitate patients in cardiac arrest, among other uses.

The woman had gotten the medication from the military base near her home in Virginia, which sends its prescriptions out to a national center to be filled. It was apparently the national pharmacy that made the error.

The medicine the woman was given could have killed her instantly, or at least led to a heart attack or stroke, among other side effects.