Pregnant Colorado Woman Mistakenly Given Abortion Pill

[ccgirl]

As a PP indicated, this was actual the fault of the pharmacy tech giving her the medication. The medication was actually for another patient and the bottle was labeled with the other patient's name. The last name was the same and the first name extremely similar. All this could have been avoided by the pharmacy tech verifying the address and phone number as my current pharmacy does. This poor woman. Even if she doesn't miscarry I am sure she is going to be very uneasy her entire pregnancy wondering if there will be any side effects.

 

[hulagirl87]

I hadn't heard this story, but that's horrifying. My sister was given the wrong medication once, though certainly not to this extent. The names were VERY similar and it was a new medication so she did not know the difference. When she started getting really weird side effects she called the doctor who had her come in. The verified the name of the medication and noticed it was the wrong one. The pharmacy apologized and tried to blame it on the doctor's handwriting. Wouldn't you then call the doctor's office to verify the medication instead of just guessing Thank goodness my sister didn't take the medicine very long and it didn't have any long term damage, but it's amazing to me that these mistakes do happen. We depend or rely on these pharmacies to give us the right medicines and look what happens. I hope that this woman is ok. I can't even imagine what she is going through. When I was pregnant I would read everything to know if it was safe or not, and was very skeptical of all medicines, but if your doctor gives you a prescription and tells you it's ok, I can understand why she would just take it and might not read the label or information. I would trust that a pharmacy was filling a correct medicine for me. I know now to be very apprehensive.

 

[tlbwriter]

I agree there are errors that aren't obvious. I've seen some first hand back when I was picking up scripts for my grandmother - dosage errors, inappropriate substitutions, potentially dangerous interactions that no one noticed until her home nurse had the bottles in hand. But this wasn't that sort of error; this was something easily caught.

I see it like this - Two drivers are involved in an auto accident. Driver A is 100% at fault for the accident, but Driver B wasn't wearing a seatbelt and is seriously injured. The accident is still totally Driver A's fault and if not for that Driver B could have gotten away with driving home unbuckled that day, but Driver B's lack of caution did contribute to the injury he sustained. That's not saying Driver B asked to get into an accident, and it isn't taking any of the blame away from Driver A. It is simply an acknowledgment that more than one thing had to go wrong to produce that specific outcome.

I think that's a very good analogy. The tech committed the first (and more egregious) error, but the patient committed her own error that contributed to the outcome.

I don't think it was done with criminal intent, it was a BAD mistake. No crime was committed.

Criminal intent is not required for someone to be found criminally negligent. In fact, I think that's the whole point of being charged with negligence - you didn't want to cause harm, but you didn't do what was required and therefore someone was harmed. A nurse accidentally injecting the wrong med, resulting in a patient's death, is negligent. A nurse deliberately injecting the wrong med is a murderer.

 

[luvmy3]

As a PP indicated, this was actual the fault of the pharmacy tech giving her the medication. The medication was actually for another patient and the bottle was labeled with the other patient's name. The last name was the same and the first name extremely similar. All this could have been avoided by the pharmacy tech verifying the address and phone number as my current pharmacy does. This poor woman. Even if she doesn't miscarry I am sure she is going to be very uneasy her entire pregnancy wondering if there will be any side effects.

They have admitted their fault but I still think she bears some responsibility for actually TAKING the medication. When I get a medication filled, on top of having to verify my info and sign, I am given a printout with my name, Rx number, medication, dosage, side effects etc. (I assume thats is something all pharmacies have to do). Also on the bottle, or box is the sticker with all that info (except for the very long list of side effects). She took the pill without looking at either of those things? And if she did but *thought* she saw her name since the one on it was so similiar, than she made the same mistake the tech did.
I feel for her, I hope that her baby is OK, and yes the pharmacy is at fault for giving her the medication but she has to bear some responsibilty since she negelected to read her information before she actually took it. I do think she should definitely win a lawsuit against the pharmacy since they were at fault, and admitted it, but it wasn't 100% theirs IMO.

 

[Disney1fan2002]

She definitely should have checked the meds before taking. I always do that.

This med is used widely for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis, more so I believe than the indications that were listed in that story and those pills are very low dose, so I think it is highly unlikely too much damage was done, as long as she only took one dose.

Suzanne

I agree. If she just took ONE pill, the baby is probably fine. I was on methotrexate for years. My Doctor warned me not to get pregnant while I was on, if I did get pregnant, he would have to STRONGLY recommend termination. If the baby was born alive, it would have severe birth defects. There were no "but what if my baby is different and manages to be fine"....severe birth defects like extra limbs, no limbs, half a brain, ect. I will say....I had ONE pregnancy scare while I was on it. I was devasted when I missed my period for 3 weeks. (It came like clockwork). I didn't know what I would do if I was pregnant. I didn't think there was anyway I could bring myself to abort. Turns out, I was not pregnant, thank GOD.

Anyway, I will pray that the one pill doesn't affect the baby.

I can't believe that the bottle had someone elses name on it and the woman still took the pill. I agree, she is partly to blame here.

 

[Liberty Belle]

I agree with the majority. My opinion is that the fault is 50/50. The pharmacy gave her someone else's bottle - someone who had a similar name - so they were wrong and made a mistake. But the woman should have known her prescription and verified it against the bottle.

Bottom line: we are each responsible for what we voluntarily put into our mouths, so this can't be all pushed off on the pharmacy. If it had been someone giving her a shot, then I'd lean toward the caregiver being 100% responsible.

I disagree. For one thing, sometimes you're given a generic and the name is completely different. Also, if someone is ill, they may not have the mental energy to catch little distinctions in the pills.

I think the pharmacy is 100% responsible.

Having said that, I do think people should educate themselves about the medication they're taking.

And as far as the shot goes, you lean toward 100%? In what situations would you think the patient is responsible?

 

[Liberty Belle]

I hadn't heard this story, but that's horrifying. My sister was given the wrong medication once, though certainly not to this extent. The names were VERY similar and it was a new medication so she did not know the difference. When she started getting really weird side effects she called the doctor who had her come in. The verified the name of the medication and noticed it was the wrong one. The pharmacy apologized and tried to blame it on the doctor's handwriting. Wouldn't you then call the doctor's office to verify the medication instead of just guessing Thank goodness my sister didn't take the medicine very long and it didn't have any long term damage, but it's amazing to me that these mistakes do happen. We depend or rely on these pharmacies to give us the right medicines and look what happens. I hope that this woman is ok. I can't even imagine what she is going through. When I was pregnant I would read everything to know if it was safe or not, and was very skeptical of all medicines, but if your doctor gives you a prescription and tells you it's ok, I can understand why she would just take it and might not read the label or information. I would trust that a pharmacy was filling a correct medicine for me. I know now to be very apprehensive.

Now THAT is one thing I don't understand. I think all prescriptions from doctors should be printed out with a label maker or computer printer. I know doctors are busy, but it would take a few extra seconds. And it seems many of them don't even try to write legibly.

 

[Jennasis]

I just wanted to point out that I believe that the pharmacy should bear 100% of the LEGAL responsibility. But people need to take more of a reposnsibility for themselves, I suppose. I expect this woman to take'em to the cleaners and fully support her in this endeavor, but her own contribution to the debacle should be a cautionary tale to others.

 

[allison443]

I just wanted to point out that I believe that the pharmacy should bear 100% of the LEGAL responsibility. But people need to take more of a reposnsibility for themselves, I suppose. I expect this woman to take'em to the cleaners and fully support her in this endeavor, but her own contribution to the debacle should be a cautionary tale to others.

I agree with this.

 

[npmommie]

And as far as the shot goes, you lean toward 100%? In what situations would you think the patient is responsible?

A patient would never be responsible in any way in a shot situation.
in nursing school the "rights" of med admin are drilled into us.
the right medication to the right patient in the right dose at the right time by the right route

 

[allison443]

I don't think it was done with criminal intent, it was a BAD mistake. No crime was committed.

Actually you can be charged with a crime even without intent. Involuntary manslaughter. Criminally negligent homicide. etc.

 

[tlbwriter]

I disagree. For one thing, sometimes you're given a generic and the name is completely different. Also, if someone is ill, they may not have the mental energy to catch little distinctions in the pills.

I think the pharmacy is 100% responsible.

But she didn't have to notice the name of the medication, or the appearance of the pills. All she had to notice was that the name on the bottle was not her name.

And as far as the shot goes, you lean toward 100%? In what situations would you think the patient is responsible?

I'm not the person who said that, but I can think of one circumstance where the patient bears some responsibility - if the nurse comes into your hospital room and asks "Are you Jane Doe?" and you aren't paying attention (or you think Jane is getting some good meds ) and you say "yes." The nurse is still supposed to check your wristband, so any mistake would be, like 1% the patient's fault, but still. You are the last failsafe.

 

[npmommie]

I'm not the person who said that, but I can think of one circumstance where the patient bears some responsibility - if the nurse comes into your hospital room and asks "Are you Jane Doe?" and you aren't paying attention (or you think Jane is getting some good meds ) and you say "yes." The nurse is still supposed to check your wristband, so any mistake would be, like 1% the patient's fault, but still. You are the last failsafe.

that scenario shouldn't happen. and the patient is still not in any way responsible for that.
if the nurse doesn't know who the patient is, the wristband should be checked.
always.
going back to those rights drilled into us.
there is no excuse, the nurse would be 100% at fault in your scenario still.

 

[Jeniferdwn]

Also be sure to check the expiration date on meds. I have had lots of trouble with the pharmacy I use. They gave me a pack of birth control pills with someone elses info sticker on it. I had all of her info. Then they gave me a pack of birth control pills that had expired over a year earlier. They were out of my BP meds and said they didn't know when they'd get them back in. I called and talked to the store manager and told him everything and he admitted that he didn't spend enough time with the pharmacy staff, more with the front register group. He was very appreciative that I let him know what was happening. He apparently talked to the staff and they are like a different group of people now.

One more thing. If you have the resources to do so, or even when you pick up the prescription, check to make sure the doctor has written the correct dosage for babies/toddlers/kids. They are in a hurry and they make mistakes as well.

 

[AKL_Megs]

Actually you can be charged with a crime even without intent. Involuntary manslaughter. Criminally negligent homicide. etc.

But she nor her unborn has died. At this point, it is still a mistake. It's still civil. So to answer the first question I quoted, no, nobody can be charged with negligence. Yet.

 

[ccgirl]

Now THAT is one thing I don't understand. I think all prescriptions from doctors should be printed out with a label maker or computer printer. I know doctors are busy, but it would take a few extra seconds. And it seems many of them don't even try to write legibly.

A lot of doctors in my area are now using a computer program to "send" the script to the pharmacy. That way there is no issue with the legibility of the name and/or medication.

 

[allison443]

But she nor her unborn has died. At this point, it is still a mistake. It's still civil. So to answer the first question I quoted, no, nobody can be charged with negligence. Yet.

Right, but you said mistakes don't lead to criminal charges absent criminal intent, which isn't accurate.

Even without a death, what about reckless endangerment?

 

[Eeyores Butterfly]

Like others, I am a little bit shocked at the blame the victim mentality.

If I read the article correctly, it states that the other patient had a similar name. For all we know, she checked the bottle, saw that name was similar, and proceeded to take it and then realized later it wasn't her name. I blame the pharmacy 100%.

Often times a doctor writes a prescription and you never even see it until it is faxed. The prescription is written with the brand name, and then the pharmacy gives you a generic whose name may bear no resemblance to the name of the drug written. That happened to me, and I had to ask to verify that that was the generic of the drug.

It sounds like this woman was probably feeling sick. I know when I'm sick, I'm not always the most functional. I could see how she would see a similar name and not realize right away its not her name.

It scares me because I have many students on medication. Students with parents who are illiterate or disabled themselves. I highly doubt that some of the parents can read the medication names and descriptions and would be able to check their child's medication. While I do check my medications, I am not going to blame somebody does not for a mistake that should rest solely with the pharmacy.