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Cat's death highlights cases of pharmacy error in Virginia
Each day, Loudoun residents pick up filled prescriptions at many pharmacies throughout the county.In most cases, they don't ask the pharmacist any questions. They go home and take their medication, assuming it was filled correctly.
More often than not, they are right, but every now and then, accidents happen and prescriptions are filled incorrectly.
The Virginia Board of Pharmacy has taken action in about 115 cases of pharmacist error since Jan. 1, 2007.
Currently, the board is investigating a complaint against Leesburg Pharmacy.
Shirley Burt, a Gainesville resident, always had her 17-year-old cat Claws' blood-pressure prescription filled at the pharmacy because it's the only one in the area with a compounding lab, where medications can be made in different forms.
The feature Burt liked about the compounding lab is that it could make the prescription, which is usually in pill form, into a liquid so it was easier for her to administer the correct dosage. With pills filled by a regular pharmacy, she would have had to cut them, leaving room for error.
Claws had been on the prescription for more than a year, so Burt's visit to Leesburg Pharmacy Dec. 21 was routine. She started giving him the medicine Dec. 23, and on Dec. 26, she noticed that Claws was walking funny.
Burt immediately took him to the Leesburg Emergency Animal Clinic, where veterinarians found that his heart rate had slowed considerably and his blood pressure was too low to register. Claws died at the clinic on Dec. 27.
During her cat's final hours, Burt called Leesburg Pharmacy to try to rule out the medicine as the reason for the problem.
She said she really wasn't expecting what she heard from the pharmacy.
“To my horror, they called me back and said that the dose that was given to me was 10 times stronger than prescribed,” Burt said.
She added that a manager called her and also sent her flowers.
Cheri Garvin, manager at Leesburg Pharmacy acknowledged the incident but would not talk about it due to the ongoing nature of the investigation.
She did say that the incident was “devastating for us, nothing short of that.”
The pharmacy has a history of owning up to its mistakes and taking action. In April 2000, pharmacist Gregory C. Chase was on duty when a prescription for imipramine for bed-wetting was filled five times too strong for 5-year-old Brendan Ward. The Sterling boy died after one dose.
Leesburg Pharmacy fired Chase.
Another case in Loudoun County was just settled by the Board of Pharmacy.
Records show that on Jan. 2, Nader Abedinzadeh, a pharmacist at Ashburn Pharmacy, was levied a $1,000 fine and ordered to take a 12-hour pharmacy education course.
Abedinzadeh was the pharmacist in charge when a patient's prescription for 30 pills of 10 milligrams of Singulair was filled instead with eight pills of 80 milligrams of OxyContin, a schedule II narcotic.
When the patient reported symptoms of dizziness, disorientation, lethargy and vomiting to Abedinzadeh, he failed to try and identify the drug that had actually been given to her and incorrectly advised her to take caffeine to alleviate her symptoms.
Garvin of Leesburg Pharmacy said patients can help avoid pharmacy error by being as aware as possible.
For instance, ask your doctor exactly what was prescribed so you know what you're supposed to get.
Garvin also recommended asking questions of the pharmacist when the prescription is picked up.
She recommended spending two minutes with the pharmacist discussing what the drug is, what it's used for and what kind of side effects can be expected.
Garvin said if you have a sinus infection, and the pharmacist is saying the filled prescription is for pain, then the two of you can figure out right away that you have the wrong prescription. There are a lot of steps in the process where an error can occur.
“In terms of refills, if the medication looks different, smells different or is different in any way, it's important for you to contact the pharmacy immediately,” Garvin said.
She also said that if you are feeling symptoms that the pharmacist did not warn you about, or – in the case of refills – that you haven't experienced before, call the pharmacy.
That's a little more complicated when it comes to pets, as Burt can testify to.
“The trouble with Claws is that he couldn't tell me, and he didn't really show any signs until it was too late,” Burt said.
“The worst thing about the whole situation is that I have to live with the fact that I was the one giving him the medicine that killed him, although I had no idea at the time. I live with that every day.”
Contact the reporter at jrenn@timespapers.com
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