Posted on 06/22/2016 4:32:41 AM PDT by BenLurkin
An 8-year-old boy in Colorado died this month after a local pharmacy made a massive error in his medication dosage.
Jake Steinbrecher overdosed on his usual medication of Clonidine used to treat his sensory processing disorder — a drug his parents didn't want him to take to begin with.
...
"Drugging our child definitely wasn't something we wanted to do," his mother Caroline Steinbrecher told the Daily News.
"The Clonidine was a compromise I could live with, because it was a non-addictive drug," she added.
Steinbrecher said that the drug is usually considered safe for children under the age of 8, but not at 1,000 times a normal dosage.
...
The night he passed, Steinbrecher remembered taking Jake to dance class where he practiced for an upcoming recital.
"That was honestly so important to him, to make it to that practice," she told the News.
"He died before he was able to perform."
To remember Jake's gift for dance, Steinbrecher created the Jake Steinbrecher Dance Fund...
(Excerpt) Read more at nydailynews.com ...
I take Clonidine as one of my four BP (hypertension) meds. (I was running 205/135 resting, back in 2009, damn near had a stroke.) Dosage is 0.1 milligram (100 micrograms), and I could tell the difference when I went from twice daily to once daily -- even with the other three at high levels.
I agree, it was likely a combination of a) mg vs. mcg confusion, and b) pharmacist unfamiliar with clonidine who didn't trigger on the obvious error. Damn shame.
It’s possible that the parents were told their son could not attend school without drugs.
Dosing for clonidine is known by every first year nursing student, this isn’t rocket science.
You still have the option to not give the drug.
Do you think more regulation would have prevented this error?
Yes, that’s true. However, they might have “felt” that they had “no choice.”
Of course not. Pharmacists are educated to know this information and this is gross negligence.
Thanks, that’s what I thought, too.
Of course!
The solution to any problem is massive regulations, 1,000 times the usual dose!
The problem with compounding in pharmacies is that they are not tightly regulated enough,” Steinbrecher explained.
Yep, that’s the issue. We all know there would be no errors if we just had enough regulations.
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Your comments are usually astute, but you are in over your head on this one. Some regulations are important. For example, ever notice how buildings around the world crumble in the face of a magnitude 6 earthquake, but ours mostly hang together? Regulations requiring building to certain codes are the reason for that.
The mother in this case is exactly right. The regulations do not require sentinal sampling of all meds. They should, as a matter of safety. What she is asking for would require the addition of human or robotic prescription testers/checkers, and would slightly increase the cost of drugs, but greatly improve their safety. It is a procedure that the better companies follow, but is not required. It should be.
Came to my mind immediately.
Thanks!
Sounds like a made-up disease to give government school teachers an excuse to drug boys into zombiehood and the "ethical" pharmaceutical industry another revenue stream.
I was thinking the same thing. When my son’s doctor prescribed him a steroid for his asthma when he was a child, I refused and then asked for, and got, a referral to a specialist. The specialist said that my son’s case was so mild that he didn’t need to take steroids. His doctor didn’t care for me much after that.
When a hospital can take away your kid if you disagree with their diagnosis, yes.
GMTA!
WebMD indicates that Clonidine is used to treat (primarily) hypertension and ^MAY^ treat ADD. [I find that ADD is acronym for Adult Deficiency to Discipline.]
In what reality does an 8YO have hypertension? The DR should be held to account for using a “blood-pressure” medicine for treating a local diagnosis of ADD.
ADD is a “catch-all” for any DR that can’t define why a youngster is not able to able to SIT-DOWN and SHUT-UP.
Hell, my mom threw us out the door and told us to come back when we were tired. When we did come back near dark, she would put us in bed and said, “Quit yer wailin’ child. Go to sleep”
Except in this case the deceased was not acting like a boy. He took dance classes.
Nice to know it treats " sensory processing disorders". I've been given the stuff (.1 MG)for high blood pressure.
You may be correct. However, it is the norm for it to be claimed that any proposed new regulation will greatly improve (desirable goal A) at little to no cost and with no unanticipated consequences.
Dude: Gene Kelly was known as one of the pre-emminent dancers of his day as well as a manly-man among the troupe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw-qlHuktJs
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