Pharmacist’s carelessness leads to injury
Bill, a retired ambulance driver, was admitted to hospital for an operation to repair a long term shoulder injury. Following discharge Bill was in a lot of pain and his GP prescribed him Pethidine for pain relief.
He visited his local pharmacy and collected his medication, which clearly stated Pethidine on the packaging. He took the medication as directed by his GP.
After two days Bill became very unwell. He had a sudden onset of dizziness, fainting and severe projectile vomiting. As a result of his sickness he was unable to take his regular heart medication because he could not swallow his usual tablets.
Bill’s wife checked his medication. She discovered that although the packaging was labelled as pethidine, the foil strip inside the packaging contained Methadone. Methadone is often used as an opiate substitute for heroin in the treatment of heroin addiction.
Bill immediately ceased taking the medication but he remained extremely unwell and had to seek urgent medical advice. Fortunately he went on to make a full recovery.
With the help of clinical negligence specialist Emma Rush, Bill successfully pursued a claim. The pharmacy admitted that crucially, Bill’s medication had not been checked by a senior pharmacist before dispensing, as was standard procedure. As a result of Bill’s case the pharmacy have introduced new safe guarding procedures to ensure similar human errors do not happen with another patient.
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