Pharmacy Error Kills Small Child

On June 15 of this year, we wrote an article on this blog about how pharmacy errors were causing serious injuries and wrongful deaths at an alarming rate on a nationwide basis. The problem about which we wrote unfortunately was the topic of a headline article in the news today concerning the death of a 3-year old child in Gainesville, Florida. This child died from a medication overdose. Instead of receiving the prescribed dose of a medication ordered by the doctor, the pharmacy gave him more than 10 times the amount ordered. The boy died because of this mistake.
According to the news article, a moratorium has been instituted at this facility until a quality assessment and new patient safety measures are implemented. Thus, we have one more statistic in this national problem, this time affecting a very small and innocent child and his family.
When receiving medication from a pharmacy, patients should always carefully review the label to make sure that the dosage appears to be correct. If they have any questions at all about this, they should confer either with their doctor or pharmacist. Because mistakes are made which can cause serious medical problems and/or death, not only must pharmacies be more careful but patients must also act to protect themselves. While a settlement was reached with the parents for the wrongful death of this child, obviously, no compensation can address the loss of a 3-year old child. While we hope that this problem can be effectively addressed by the pharmacy industry, until remedial steps are taken on a nationwide basis, more headlines of a similar nature are likely to be seen.