Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyer Blog

Our Maryland Pharmacy Error Injury Lawyers have been following the recent case filed last week on behalf of John Sheridan, a man who died after being prescribed the wrong dosage of a cancer medication.

According to the suit, Sheridan was prescribed Temodar, a powerful drug for brain tumors that was part of his treatment of cancer in September 2007. The prescription was allegedly written incorrectly, and Sheridan was wrongly prescribed 10 times the correct dosage—he reportedly took the medicine daily when it was only to be used every other week. Rite Aid Pharmacy allegedly dispensed the drug to Sheridan, without checking with Sheridan’s oncologist for a second opinion to clarify the prescription mistake.

The lawsuit accuses a Rite Aid pharmacy for contributing in the wrongful death of Sheridan, who reportedly had consumed toxic doses of the cancer medication. According to the Associated Press, the doctor who wrote the incorrect prescription has settled with Sheridan’s estate.

According to a 2006 report from the Institute of Medicine, at least 1.5 million Americans are injured by medication mistakes every year, and nearly 7,000 people die every year from medication errors annually.

Continue reading "Pharmacy Mistake Leads to Wrongful Death—Rite Aid Faces Lawsuit" »

The FDA has recently published a patient safety alert, reporting medication dosage errors associated with Tamiflu, (for oral suspension), the top doctor prescribed anti-viral flu medication, administered to both adults and children. Our Maryland Pharmacy Misfill Injury Attorneys have been following this prescriber and pharmacy alert report, and how it could effect patient safety in this current H1N1 influenza pandemic.

According to the agency alert, the FDA has received reports that the Tamiflu (oral suspension) dosing instructions for the patient do not match the dosing dispenser. U.S. health providers often write liquid medicine prescriptions in teaspoons or milliliters (mL), while the dosage of Tamiflu is in milligrams (mg). Prescribers and pharmacists have been warned that Tamiflu's dosing dispenser included in the package has markings only in mg—30, 45, and 60.

The alert recommends that:

• If the dosing dispenser included with the drug is in mg, prescribers should write doses in mg

• Pharmacists should also ensure that the unit measurements on the instructions of the prescriptions match the dosage dispenser included.

• If the prescription instructions specify that the drug is administered using mL, the dosing device should be replaced with a new measuring device and calibrated in mL.

Tamiflu (oseltamivir) is an antiviral drug that slows the spreading of the influenza virus in the body. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 22 million Americans have become ill with the H1N1 virus in the past six months, and 3,900 have died— 540 of which were pediatric deaths. The number of people who have been hospitalized is reportedly 98,000, with 36,000 patients younger than 17. The largest majority of deaths have been between the ages of 18 and 64—around 2,920.

Maryland’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported last week that six more people have died in Maryland in the past four weeks from the swine flu, bringing the total death toll to 19 since the pandemic began. The H1N1 virus has also hospitalized 664 people in Maryland.

The Los Angeles Times reported that in the last week of October, 587,960 prescriptions for Tamiflu and other antiviral drugs were filled in the United States— according to Wolters Kluwer Pharma Solutions of Bridgewater, N.J., the company that tracks FDA prescription data.

If you or someone you know has been injured by a medication mistake or pharmacy misfill in Maryland or the Washington, D.C. area, contact the attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen, LLC for a free consultation. Call us today at 1-800-654-1949.

FDA Public Health Alert: Potential Medication Errors with Tamiflu for Oral Suspension

New CDC Estimates Show What Toll Swine Flu is Taking in U.S., Wasington Post, November 13, 2009

Booster Shots: Swine Flu Continues Slow Climb on College Campuses, The Los Angeles Times, November 13, 2009

Swine Flu Kills 6 More People in Maryland: All Had Underlying Conditions, Baltimore Sun, November 13, 2009

Related Web Resources:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, (FDA)

The medication error attorneys at Lebowitz & Mzhen, LLC recently learned that the Food and Drug Administration has warned consumers who use medicated skin patches to remove those patches before going through a MRI scan. According to the FDA, some patches contain metal which may heat up during an MRI and burn the patient’s skin. The FDA warns that the metal in many of these patches may not be visible to the patient and not all transdermal patches that contain metal have patient warnings printed on the box. The FDA is currently reviewing the labeling requirements to ensure that patients are adequately warned of this new danger.

Until this review is complete, the FDA suggests that patients who use medicated patches do the following:
• Before undergoing an MRI scan, tell your doctor that you are using a patch and why you are using it;
• Ask your doctor for counsel regarding whether to remove the patch before the scan, and whether to replace it after the procedure;
• Tell the MRI technician that you are using a patch. The FDA suggests that you do this when making the appointment and again when you arrive at the MRI facility.

Transdermal patches deliver medication slowly through a patient’s skin. When most people think of patches that deliver medication through the skin, they immediately think of the nicotine patch. However, in the years since the development of the nicotine patch, the drug industry has developed a number of other medications that are effectively administered through the skin. For example, to treat angina many doctors direct their patients to wear nitroglycerin patches. Some women going through menopause also use patches that deliver hormones into their system, and doctors can prescribe Clonidine patches to patients with high blood pressure.

According to the National Coordinating Counsel for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention (NCC MERP), medication errors kill more Americans annually, than work place accidents. Maryland lawyers who pursue prescription error cases recognize the financial and human impact that errantly filled prescriptions have on the citizens of this state. Pharmacy negligence is one of the most pressing health concerns across the nation due to the sheer number of people affected by errantly filled prescriptions.

Some common types of medication errors include:
• Incomplete patient information (i.e. not knowing about patient’s allergies, other medicines they are taking, previous diagnoses, and lab results);
• Unavailable drug information (i.e. lack of up to date warnings);
• Miscommunication (i.e. poor handwriting, confusion between drugs with similar names, misuse of zeroes and decimal points);
• Lack of appropriate labeling as a drug is prepared and repackaged; and
• Distracted pharmacists ( pharmacists are at times negligent distracted by heat, noise, and other interruptions)

An informed consumer is a protected consumer, and to that end Maryland pharmacy error attorneys suggest the following resources:
• The Institute for Safe Medication Practices List of Confused Drug Names
• Resources from California Academy of Family Physicians
• Online Drug Information
• List of High-Alert Drugs that carry a heightened risk of causing harm when prescribed negligently.

The attorneys at Lebowitz and Mzhen recognize the substantial human and financial impact Marylanders injured by such negligence suffer. With experience pursuing cases against negligent pharmacists, the firm would be pleased to help you.

It is clear that patients are put in danger by simple things such as penmanship and the use of inconsistent abbreviations. This must change. Maryland pharmacy negligence attorneys work with clients to hold negligent pharmacist responsible for the injuries that they cause across the state.

Your doctor hands you a prescription that you quickly take to your local pharmacy to fill. You look down at the unintelligible handwriting and find that it looks like a foreign language full of jumbled, incomprehensible abbreviations. Doctors, physician’s assistants, and other medical professionals often use abbreviations on prescriptions in order to save time. Too often, unfortunately, pharmacists misinterpret abbreviations used on prescriptions and, as a result, Maryland patients are put at risk of injury or death caused by improperly filled prescriptions. From January 2000 to August 2004, 498 health care facilities reported 19,000 medication errors caused by a pharmacist’s misinterpretation of another doctor’s short hand.

A pharmacist in Virginia misread a doctor’s abbreviation and dispensed two times the proper amount of heparin to a patient. As a result, the victim suffered a massive hemorrhage. The pharmacy ultimately settled the plaintiff’s case for $200,000.

Continue reading "Maryland Patients Face Dangers Caused by Prescription Abbreviations " »

The Maryland Pharmacists Association Newsletter for November, 2008 reported that in the last seven years, in hospitals alone, anticoagulation medication errors occurred in 70,000 instances. In twenty-six of those instances, the patient died. The report goes on to state that "[h]eparin and warfarin are consistently ranked among the 10 most frequently reported drugs involved in errors.” (Warfarin is the generic name for the better known brand name drug, Coumadin.)

When I read this article, I was surprised and concerned that such a potent drug – a blood thinner – given in too high a dose can cause a deadly hemorrhage, and that given in too low a dose might fail to prevent the formations of blood clots that the drug is designed to prevent, is so regularly dispensed by hospitals improperly.

I am interested to learn the names of the other medications that are most commonly misfilled by hospital pharmacies. Are they pain medications, like oxycodone or morphine, insulin injectables that can provide treatment in a rapid onset or an intermediate duration, or antibiotics that combat specific infections?

A doctor in Baltimore once told me: “Hospitals are dangerous places.” Add hospital pharmacy errors to the list of dangers.

Continue reading "Maryland Pharmacists Warn of Anticoagulation Medication Errors" »