Mistakes are made in prescribing and refilling medications by doctors' offices and pharmacies all the time. Protect yourself from medical errors!

This morning, I opened my cabinet and pulled out my daily vitamins, along with my daily allergy prescription, which I had picked up at the pharmacy last night.  I get that prescription filled nearly every month simply by calling the pharmacy.  I opened the bag to take the medicine.  The label appeared to be correct--my name and address were correct.  The drug name was correct. 

I proceeded to open the bottle and noticed that the pill was larger than my usual pill.  I didn't think much of it at first, as I take another medication which changes in size and shape frequently, as my insurance company changes its mind frequently on whether it will pay for brand names versus generic.  I thought that must have been what happened here and almost took the pill. 

Then, something made me think twice about taking it.  I looked at the bottle carefully.  Nothing jumped out at me as being wrong.  I then dug the empty bottle from the previous refill out of my kitchen trash can.  When I wiped away the coffee grinds from the discarded bottle, I was shocked. There it was--the old bottle was for 60MG of my medication, and the new bottle was for 180MG!  It was TRIPLE my regular dosage.  This medication has some very unwanted side effects for me, including a racing heartbeat if I take more than 60MG, so I can only imagine what THREE TIMES my regular dosage might have done to my heart.  The lot number of the pills was one number different on the two prescriptions.  A simple typo at either the doctors' office or at the pharmacy could have caused serious health consequences to me if I had not looked into the matter further. 

Now, if this can happen to a personal injury attorney, it can happen to ANYONE.  Imagine if an elderly person would have received this prescription bottle with THREE TIMES the doctor's recommended dosage. The results could have been tragic.

The moral of the story is this--medication errors occur all the time. Take care of yourself and those in your care by always double checking your refilled medications before ingesting them.  And if you unfortunately take the wrong medication and your health is seriously affected, give us a call.  Or, at the very least, report the error to your pharmacy, the pharmacy's corporate offices, and to your doctor's office.  This is the best way to help prevent these mistakes from reoccuring.