Posted on 10/20/2023 2:48:56 PM PDT by Morgana
LAS VEGAS (LifeSiteNews) – Two CVS pharmacists had their licenses suspended for accidentally giving a customer abortion drugs instead of in vitro fertilization (IVF) medication, but the woman who lost two preborn children as a result says their apologies “will never be good enough.”
Las Vegas CBS affiliate 8 News Now reported that in 2019 mother of four Timika Thomas decided to try for a fifth child and turned to IVF due to a medical history that included two ectopic pregnancies and tubal ligation.
Eventually, her doctor prescribed a vaginal suppository meant to stimulate production of pregnancy hormones, which was to be filled at a North Las Vegas CVS location. But upon taking two doses, Thomas experienced “severe” and “extreme” cramping beyond what she was expecting. So she took a closer look at the prescription bottle and was horrified to learn she had been given abortion drugs.
“They just killed my baby,” she said. “Both my babies, because I transferred two embryos.”
8 News Now says it obtained documents detailing how one technician entered the wrong medication name into Thomas’ prescription, a pharmacist failed to notice the error, and a second pharmacist neglected to review the details of the drug with Thomas when she picked it up.
“It [the error] would have been caught because then they would have had to have the medicine in their hand,” she told 8 News Now. “And they would have said, ‘Oh, this is Misoprostol or Cytotek, have you taken this before?’ And I would have said ‘no.’”
She filed a complaint, and last month the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy fined the two pharmacists at fault and suspended their licenses for a year, after which they may be reinstated. CVS, which announced its intentions to begin dispensing abortion pills earlier this year, was also fined $10,000.
“We’ve apologized to our patient for the prescription incident that occurred in 2019 and have cooperated with the Nevada Board of Pharmacy in this matter,” the company said in a statement. “The health and well-being of our patients is our number one priority and we have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to support prescription safety. Prescription errors are very rare, but if one does occur, we take steps to learn from it in order to continuously improve quality and patient safety.”
“All I got was a sorry,” Thomas lamented. “It will never be good enough.”
“People make mistakes,” but “that mistake took something from me,” she added, per The Messenger. “There’s not enough that I can say. There’s not enough therapy. There’s not enough medication that’ll take the thoughts away. That will take the pain away.”
Students for Life of America’s Caroline Wharton noted that “many outlets reporting this story have been forced to tell the truth: the Thomas’ preborn children — at the embryo state of development — were indeed human babies that were valued, unique, and special.”
What a tragedy. But look at the bright side: For those who DO want to murder their children, CVS stand by to help
Cant you read the f’in bottle before taking the drug?
Back in the 1990s, rite-aid drug store confused and gave my pregnant wife birth control pills from an Rx for prenatal vitamins.
CT govt gave them a slap on the wrist. No biggie.
That’s liberal CT for you.
Many pharmacies are cutting corners on labeling — you can’t be sure what is on a bottle anymore.
Maybe if CVS (and Walgreens) would hire enough pharmacists, things like this wouldn’t happen. They overpay their pharmacists, but then expect them to do the work of 2 pharmacists. Hospitals do the same thing with nurses. Corporate greed is disgusting.
Every time I go to the pharmacy I get a rain forest printout with each drug I pick up. Some drugs I’ve been on for decades so I don’t bother but new ones, yes I read about them.
Seems like they never discussed the medication with the patient. Sadly, lots of patients attitude is “give me the f’n drug, I’ve already waited 25 minutes”
Pharmacists have to be at least painstakingly, if not obsessively, careful. But the caseload and distractions can swamp the pharmacists ability to cope. Then they need to talk to the patient and make sure the patient understands what they are going to take. There is no pharmacy around that can handle 3 or 4 hundred prescriptions a day and do all that, unless there are 4 or 5 pharmacists present. Total pile of poop waiting to happen.
What would the bottle tell a patient? What if is the correct label, wrong drug?
I suppose they would know the exact drug prescribed by the doctor, but many people are trusting.
Such a tragedy.
In stupidfornia the labels describe the dosage form in the bottle. Any new drug, I check “pill identifier” or “RX list” for verification of the bottles content.
Multiple fails, including the customer who didn’t bother to read the label. But the deep pocket will pay.
Does anyone know how many times a year that this happens in the U.S.? Human failure will always crop up sooner or later. Maybe AI will solve this problem.
My experiences with twilight and general anesthesia are few and far between, but the ID checking is elaborately redundant. And errors still happen — usually, I suppose, because the surgical team gets complacent and careless.
Are the pharmacists ESL? I always worry about dealing with them in medical situations.
I make sure to always read the bottle confirming its my name on the prescription and the right medication before taking..this is why you should ALWAYS check and double check
From what I’ve seen, labels have a description of the pill that’s supposed to be inside the bottle.
I’m not sure if that’s a legal requirement or what, but it’s there.
See post #11.
But if the patient doesn’t know what the doctor will order, they wouldn’t even know if the drug is the correct drug even if the label and contents match.
Best thing, make your doc explain the meds, name, dose and use. Take notes. Don’t worry about looking “untrusting”. Verify that the RX dispense the correct one as ordered. Plus the pharmacist is supposed know if the order seems a bit off.
Believe me, lots of b.s. gets caught. Few slip through, but they easily can. Mistakes happen in a case when 2 or 3 people fail checking and verifying the exactitude of the meds. Too many people trust computers to verify
Cause everyone who is not esl...is making money on computers, financial adventures, or onlyfan “models”
“...3 or 4 hundred prescription a day ...”
You are likely exaggerating
-fJRoberts-
Any drug I’ve had prescribed usually warns to not take it if one is pregnant. The medication she received had the correct label, but it wasn’t the correct medication, and she didn’t know because it was new to her. Sadly, she put too much trust in human beings and didn’t read the label in time. I like to look up what I’m about to take on the internet since I can barely read the tiny print on the bottles/boxes.
How do they make a mistake like that?
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