From doctors with bad handwriting to clerical errors at the pharmacy, drug mistakes injure more than 1.5 million people a year. And that’s not counting the pill screwups that people make in their own homes. Have you ever been the victim of a prescription drug mix-up—such as receiving the wrong drug or dose? Or maybe you received medication that interacts with something else you’re taking? Whose fault was it? Take our poll!
If a doctor or pharmacist has ever made a mistake with your medicine, we’d like to hear from you. Email us your stories. Be sure to put “Medical Mistakes” in the subject line. Or share your story in the comments below.
Comments (3)
When my daughter was an infant (she’s now 27), our doctor prescribed a liquid decongestant to be given with a dropper. The pharmacy label directions said to give a dropperful four times a day. When I went back for a refill, the new label said to give 1/4 dropperful four times a day. When I questioned the pharmacist, he acknowledged that he had made a mistake on the original directions and that I had been giving her FOUR TIMES the actual prescribed amount. Luckily, the side effects had been minor–lethargy and constipation. The pharmacist was visibly shaken over his error. I took no action since she had suffered no long-term or major side effects. I think it was a wake-up call for the pharmacist, as it was for me. I have always been very cautious and aware of the medications my family has taken.
My pharmacist gave me another customer’s prescription, and I assume gave him mine.I recognized the error after I got home and returned it. It was a medication I had taken before, but had changed.
Another time, he substituted a similar product that I couldn’t use, because the product I needed was unavailable.
Our infant daughter was prescribed a mild antibiotic for an ear infection. I picked it up from our regular pharmacy and we began giving the medication to her. Every single time we gave her a dose, she would vomit and not be able to keep any of it down. We called the doctor who said to continue giving it to her but not on an empty stomach and then when that didn’t work to only give her half the dosage but more often during the day - still didn’t work. It was an antibiotic that needed to be chilled. I came home one day and realized it had been left out of the fridge all day. I called the pharmacy to see if we could get it replaced - the pharmacist on duty checked our daughter’s file and realized that we had been given a very strong antibiotic instead of the mild one that had been prescribed. We still go to the same pharmacy but do not drop off any new prescriptions if the pharmacist on duty is the same one who messed up our daughter’s prescription.