Pregnant Woman Takes Abortion Pill Due To Pharmacy Error

[Toast]

Originally Posted by Marguerite

I've never, ever had a pescription of pills that didn't come in a box. Pretty much all of them do?

I have never had a prescription come in a box. They're always in a plastic bottle with the annoying childsafe lid.

Anyway... this is kinda everyone's fault. The pharmacist should have checked more carefully, but they're human and you really should be taking responsibility for what you put into your body. They give out probably hundreds of prescriptions every day, you only have been picking up one. You should really check. Personally I take prescription medication every day for my anxiety disorder and I ALWAYS check the bottle first. That woman was lucky it wasn't something that could have seriously hurt her. The fact that you never really hear about bottles getting mixed up and the odds of a pregnant woman getting an abortion pill by accident indicates that mix ups at pharmacies probably happens a lot more often than you'd like to think, but it isn't reported.

[emma01]

Originally Posted by Kamillia

Haha, stupid woman.
I can't believe she was pregnant and didn't read the damn label.

I can't believe a professional failed to give the correct medication out....see I think its wrong to solely blame the woman. Sure she should have read it, but for US$113,600 a year, and after 4 years of training, (Source) you'd think a pharmacist should know how to distribute the drugs correctly

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by emma01

I can't believe a professional failed to give the correct medication out....see I think its wrong to solely blame the woman. Sure she should have read it, but for US$113,600 a year, and after 4 years of training, (Source) you'd think a pharmacist should know how to distribute the drugs correctly

People naturally make mistakes and the pharmacist likely does not botch things up frequently, otherwise they wouldn't be employed. Slip-ups occur and no matter how much education they've had, it can still happen. You can look at other individuals who have further education with higher pays yet still mess up although infrequently, such as surgeons. There was a case where a surgeon screwed up a colostomy resulting in the male patient pooping out of his penis and peeing out of his pooper. It's rare and infrequent, just like the pharmacist's mistake, so yes they do know how to distribute drugs correctly, far better than you or I do but one mistake doesn't mean they're incapable to properly doing their job.

[losing touch.]

i know it says that they've offered to pay medical expenses, but surely she could get some sort of compensation for this? especially if it does end up harming/killing the baby.
i still think she has some of the blame here - but i can see how you would put your trust in a medical professional. easy mistake to make i suppose, but you'd have thought being pregnant would make her extra, extra cautious.

[BasicFacts]

Originally Posted by emma01

I can't believe a professional failed to give the correct medication out....see I think its wrong to solely blame the woman. Sure she should have read it, but for US$113,600 a year, and after 4 years of training, (Source) you'd think a pharmacist should know how to distribute the drugs correctly

The pharmacist knew how to distribute the drugs correctly.
According to that article, the two women had similar names. On the pharmacist's part, it was an honest mistake. The woman was just being irresponsible.

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by losing touch.

i know it says that they've offered to pay medical expenses, but surely she could get some sort of compensation for this? especially if it does end up harming/killing the baby.
i still think she has some of the blame here - but i can see how you would put your trust in a medical professional. easy mistake to make i suppose, but you'd have thought being pregnant would make her extra, extra cautious.

I agree a compensation should be in order, however, if the baby is harmed or dies before birth, it needs to be proven that it occurred because of the medication mix-up. People can inherit harmful diseases or mutations, be exposed to toxins, the mother can provide malnutrition or harmful substances, etc... . So while a compensation should occur, somehow the pharmacy needs to know the harm was due only to the medications and absolutely nothing else. That's hard to prove because the mother can say she cared properly yet the baby ended up malformed or impaired and the pharmacy would only have the mother's word to go on.

Furthermore, if the medications do contribute to the harm or death of the fetus along with the fact the mother ingested harmful substances or the fetus inherited diseases or a random mutation occurred, somehow the pharmacy needs to know how much the medications contributed. If there haven't been many studies to use to see the effects on humans, then there's no reliable data to use and it's down to medical insight. But if both are present, then giving full compensation is ignorantly downplaying the other effects that occurred.

[dr2005]

Originally Posted by WOW!USaidSomethingSmart!

I agree a compensation should be in order, however, if the baby is harmed or dies before birth, it needs to be proven that it occurred because of the medication mix-up. People can inherit harmful diseases or mutations, be exposed to toxins, the mother can provide malnutrition or harmful substances, etc... . So while a compensation should occur, somehow the pharmacy needs to know the harm was due only to the medications and absolutely nothing else. That's hard to prove because the mother can say she cared properly yet the baby ended up malformed or impaired and the pharmacy would only have the mother's word to go on.

Toxicology tests and medical examination would resolve the questions regarding the extent of the medication's role in such harm. Genetic factors can also be picked out via DNA profiling. It's more of a problem when you're trying to establish causation from environmental factors from my understanding of the case law, but again medical examination would be able to identify any red flags in that regard and rest assured a pharmacy (or their parent company) will be quite insistent on such examination occurring. Legal causation is the more tricky area.

Originally Posted by WOW!USaidSomethingSmart!

Furthermore, if the medications do contribute to the harm or death of the fetus along with the fact the mother ingested harmful substances or the fetus inherited diseases or a random mutation occurred, somehow the pharmacy needs to know how much the medications contributed. If there haven't been many studies to use to see the effects on humans, then there's no reliable data to use and it's down to medical insight. But if both are present, then giving full compensation is ignorantly downplaying the other effects that occurred.

Again the above would establish such extent fairly conclusively, and I would imagine with something like an abortion pill the physiological effects would be well documented. As I said I believe it tends to be claims on the basis of environmental factors which are most problematic - it certainly has been the case here in the UK from what I recall. I may need to double-check that though.

[emma01]

Originally Posted by WOW!USaidSomethingSmart!

People naturally make mistakes and the pharmacist likely does not botch things up frequently, otherwise they wouldn't be employed. Slip-ups occur and no matter how much education they've had, it can still happen. You can look at other individuals who have further education with higher pays yet still mess up although infrequently, such as surgeons. There was a case where a surgeon screwed up a colostomy resulting in the male patient pooping out of his penis and peeing out of his pooper. It's rare and infrequent, just like the pharmacist's mistake, so yes they do know how to distribute drugs correctly, far better than you or I do but one mistake doesn't mean they're incapable to properly doing their job.

I didn't say they were incapable of doing their job, I was simply replying to Kamilla who seemed to put all the blame on the woman, which I disagree with.

Originally Posted by Kamillia

The pharmacist knew how to distribute the drugs correctly.
According to that article, the two women had similar names. On the pharmacist's part, it was an honest mistake. The woman was just being irresponsible.

So the pharmacist had a quick glance and misread the name, maybe the woman had a quick glance and misread the name too??
But really, how was she to know that a pharmacist could make a mistake. Its like if a doctor prescribes you on the wrong drug (for example when filling out the form on the computer accidentally clicks the wrong drug to appear on the prescription form), is the patient expected to double check what they have been prescribed, because usually I just go straight to the chemist and get what I was told to get. Would it be my fault then because I didn't go home and research what I had been prescribed.
Or when babies are switched at the hospital, would it be the new mothers fault because she didn't pay close enough attention!?!?

I know you are going to say the woman should have known her own name, but to be honest when I get prescriptions I have the right to be given the correct prescription and I never check my name unless I happen to look at it. Most people actually don't give a second thought to it. Professionals aren't expected to get it wrong, so I don't agree that full blame be put on the mother. Even if you say it was her fault, the baby died and it did nothing wrong, it's not really fair that the baby's life was taken because of one error.

[Double X]

This is why abortion should be outright banned.


kiddingggg

[Kumagoro]

What a sad thing to hear... regardless of who was responsible it's still a terrible thing for both the mother and the pharmacist to have to live with. </3

[OMFG!You'reActuallySmart!]

Originally Posted by Double X

This is why abortion should be outright banned.


kiddingggg

LOL, this was waiting to be said. Well played.