Posted on 10/22/2016 8:32:21 AM PDT by rickmichaels
They needed George Bailey.
I wonder what the mother will get.
Some countries put a ceiling on the maximum $$ that a suit can hold.
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Attorneys are required because folks simply cannot settle their own differences.
By the way, “Queen’s Park” is this article is a demonym referring to the capitol (not capital) of Ontario.
You beat me to it!
Good to see Freepers are still on their toes.
I agree their health system sucks but dont really see how it correlates to an article about a pharmacy screwing up.
It happens in the US way too much also.
Have a relative with permanent brain damage from contra indicated meds.
I thought the same thing.
Lack of funds for oversight (and thereby enforcement) moved them to a "cost recovery program". Drug, medical device, cosmetic, 'health products' , submission costs, did not generate the desired revenue. Focus was placed on the federal level, with provinces - local compounding pharmacies- not a priority.
Not that, that is a problem in and of itself, but the "compounding" can obviate all the federal level controls/oversight that is built into the final product (cGMP compliance for finished drug products).
BTW: the U.S. treated compound pharmacies the same on on the Fed level but for many reasons, there was better state control/oversight. Not to pick on people but the most egregious crimes & mistakes by U.S. compounding pharmacies were committed by pearsons with names not seen in your highschool year book...
I do believe US pharmacies have addressed these type errors over the years so this kind of thing is less likely here. That said, humans make mistakes. Remember the shuttle Columbia was designed and built by our best minds.
They really do make an effort to distribute similar sounding or spelled names in packaging that is as different as possible.
““How does this happen?” demands his mother. “This is so unbelievable and so unacceptable.”
I am not minimizing the pain of the parents but mistakes DO happen in life.
I certainly agree that pharmacy mistakes should be thoroughly tracked.
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It’s easy to make sure pills have been filled correctly, not so with liquids.
If you have a prescription filled for a ‘liquid’ medicine, be very careful that it is filled correctly. Pills you can check the identity of online. Liquids cannot be, and are usually dispensed from a larger bottle.
My guess is that this was not filled by the pharmacist, but probably someone the pharmacist designated to fill it. If you aren't a pharmacist and someone says “tryptophan” and you are looking at bottles and you weren't sure what was said to you, but you see a bottle labeled “baclofen”, you might mistake them (3 syllables, similar sounding ending). No one should make that mistake, pharmacist or not, but if it were up to me I would make it punishable by imprisonment, no exceptions, for anyone but a pharmacist to fill a liquid prescription. To be honest, they should probably require that all liquid prescriptions are pre-bottled and sealed.
As a more general comment, you should never put blind faith in the medical care you receive. As a patient you are a crucial part of the process that prevents errors from being made. No one has a bigger stake in the outcome than you.
Good advice. Many docs simply read instructions and are too busy to do "root cause analysis" and investigate the source of complex healthcare problems. It's good for the patient to engage in finding the solution, medicines, etc.
Really sad for this family....I cannot imagine what they have been through.
But, it was built by the low bidder!!!!
My first thought too
Baclofen and other muscle relaxants are very dangerous drugs, and not just as an obvious overdose. I had a very scary event with Baclofen myself and it wasn’t an issue of taking too many pills, but having been prescribed both Baclofen and high strenght pain killers. They DO NOT MIX WELL!! and it doesn’t take much to get in trouble.
Be thankful that we are not that pharmacist.
So sorrowful, all the way around.
A govt. pharmacy?
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