Prescription Label Error Shakes up Mom
Posted by
Christina ColeDecember 13, 2006 8:05 PMBecky Vanderlinden was quite surprised last week when she noticed the dose instructions on the bottle of antibiotics for her toddler.
The toddler received five times the dose of antibiotics that her doctor had prescribed. Vanderlinden had called the pharmacy to check the dosage and was told that it was indeed correct - but the label was wrong. "I thought, "This seems like a huge amount of medicine for a baby," says Vanderlinden, who called the pharmacy immediately to check. The person she spoke with said "This is the right dose."
She gave the 19-month old toddler the 2.5 teaspoons of Omnicef and repeated the dosage three more times. At which point the bottle was empty so the woman called back the pharmacy. That is when she discovered her original suspicion was right. It turns out the label was five times the amount the doctor had prescribed.
At this point, Lily had severe diarrhea and a couple days later developed a painful yeast infection. The whole thing left the Bountiful Mom a bit shaken up - and with advice for other patients and parents: If something raises a red flag, don't be afraid to ask questions.
Vanderlinden "did the right thing" by calling the pharmacy back to question the dosage, says Crouch. Those are the same words used by the manager of the Bountiful Walgreen's that filled Lily's prescription and by a spokeswoman for Walgreen's corporate office in Chicago."You should always question anything you're concerned about" when it comes to a prescription, says Lani Palauni, manager of the Bountiful Walgreen's pharmacy, who added that she can't comment on Vanderlinden's specific case because of patient privacy laws.
"We regret we didn't catch the error at the time," said Walgreen's corporate spokeswoman Carol Hively. "We have apologized, refunded her co-pay and provided additional treatment" (a cream for Lily's yeast infection). She said Walgreen's is investigating how the error happened.