No one ever expects that they are going to die at the hands of another person — especially a medical physician who has spent years of his or her life in medical school. Doctors are expected to know what they are doing and to provide adequate care. However, doctor errors are made. Unfortunately, those errors can result in the untimely death of individuals in Missouri and across the rest of the nation.
This is exactly what happened to one woman from another state. In fact, it was the day after she turned 90 years of age. Reportedly, her death was caused by a prescription error made by a local pharmacist.
The elderly woman was not in perfect health but was doing relatively fine. This was until she received her heart medication with a misprinted label. The prescription said to take a single tablet of 300 milligrams four times each day.
Caregivers provided her with the medication as it was listed on the label. Unfortunately, the label was not accurate. It was actually supposed to be 30 milligrams instead of 300 milligrams. Therefore, she was receiving 10 times the amount of medication per day that she was supposed to receive.
Her daughter finally noticed it several days later, but it was too late by then. The woman was taken to the hospital and was later put in hospice care. It was later determined that the prescription sent to the pharmacy from the doctor’s office had been accurate. The pharmacist ended up being cited $1,000, but the daughter did not feel that this was enough. She has already hired legal counsel to move forward in holding the pharmacist responsible for his or her actions.
When an individual in Missouri has been victimized by doctor errors or prescription errors, he or she does have legal options. This is especially true if one has endured significant pain and suffering or lost a loved one due to the negligence of a medical professional. Hopefully, the daughter in this case, as well as anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation, will gain a sense of justice being served while also possibly preventing the same mistakes from occurring again in the foreseeable future.
Source: CBS Los Angeles, “Woman Says Glendale Pharmacist’s Mistake Led To Mother’s Death“, Nov. 7, 2014