[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.