Unfortunate incident
It could happen to anyone. My wife was prescribed a new drug last month and we went to the doctor's office (can never get through by telephone) and asked them to prepare prescriptions for the next three months, so we don't have to keep going back. So they added the new drug to her list of regular ones and made prescriptions for the next three months. The doctor signed them to make them official.
We then took the current month's prescription to the pharmacy and received the month's supply of this particular drug in a colorful box. We took it home and my wife said that she would take one then at 5 pm. We were sitting waiting for our daughter and family to arrive, when my wife said she felt nauseous. Around 7 pm she started throwing up and could not stop, it was awful. I went to check the directions in the box that tell about side-effects, and it did in fact say that the most common side effect was nausea and vomiting. But, as I was looking at the box I noticed the box of last month's prescription, and IT WAS A DIFFERENT COLOR! I compared the boxes and immediately noticed that the old one said 1.5 mg and the new one said 4.5 mg. They were the same drug, but different doses. Since my wife had taken the higher dose only 2 hrs earlier it was clear that that was the cause of her problem. I called the doctor at home and eventually made contact with him and he confirmed that a mistake must have been made and told her not to take any more and to wait until the morning when the side-effect should have worn off.
Indeed she did feel fine the next morning. I went to his surgery and the prescription at the correct lower dose was waiting. The pharmacy would not accept the higher dose box back because it had been opened, and they would not refund the cost (it wasn't much since it is highly subsidized). The doctor had agreed to cover the cost of the first incorrect dose, but I told him to forget it. Fortunately this was a minor effect of the higher dose of the drug, but suppose it had been 10 times the correct dose and suppose it was toxic? It shows that you must be very careful and check all medications from the moment they are prescribed.
We then took the current month's prescription to the pharmacy and received the month's supply of this particular drug in a colorful box. We took it home and my wife said that she would take one then at 5 pm. We were sitting waiting for our daughter and family to arrive, when my wife said she felt nauseous. Around 7 pm she started throwing up and could not stop, it was awful. I went to check the directions in the box that tell about side-effects, and it did in fact say that the most common side effect was nausea and vomiting. But, as I was looking at the box I noticed the box of last month's prescription, and IT WAS A DIFFERENT COLOR! I compared the boxes and immediately noticed that the old one said 1.5 mg and the new one said 4.5 mg. They were the same drug, but different doses. Since my wife had taken the higher dose only 2 hrs earlier it was clear that that was the cause of her problem. I called the doctor at home and eventually made contact with him and he confirmed that a mistake must have been made and told her not to take any more and to wait until the morning when the side-effect should have worn off.
Indeed she did feel fine the next morning. I went to his surgery and the prescription at the correct lower dose was waiting. The pharmacy would not accept the higher dose box back because it had been opened, and they would not refund the cost (it wasn't much since it is highly subsidized). The doctor had agreed to cover the cost of the first incorrect dose, but I told him to forget it. Fortunately this was a minor effect of the higher dose of the drug, but suppose it had been 10 times the correct dose and suppose it was toxic? It shows that you must be very careful and check all medications from the moment they are prescribed.
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:18 AM
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