14 DAY TRIAL // Heather Sparling from Surprise, Arizona suffers from an autoimmune disease and, whenever she feels ill, she has to go to the doctor's because her body is unable to cope with infections. That's why, when she began feeling bad last month, she immediately made an appointment with a specialist.
She was diagnosed with ear infection, sinus infection, an inflamed liver and hives, and she was given four prescriptions, which were filled at a local Walgreens pharmacy in Surprise.
After taking the medicine for two days, the woman's condition worsened. It was then when she received a call from a Walgreens employee informing her that she had been given the wrong drugs for one of the prescriptions.
Apparently, the pharmacy employee had given Sparling blood pressure medication instead of the pills to treat her hives. During the phone conversation, the assistant had a rather arrogant attitude. Although the prescription was printed, she initially told Sparling that she had probably misread the doctor's handwriting.
Eventually, in her defense, she said, “Well, you know, they both begin with H,” referring to the name of the drugs.
The regional medical director at US Health Works, Dr. Donald Bucklin, admits that prescription mixups are not uncommon, mentioning that, because federal laws do not require pharmacies to report errors, it’s difficult to tell how often mistakes like this one occur. However, he advises customers to be cautious when taking medicine.
"Make the doctor tell it. Make the doctor spell it. Make the doctor write it down for you. Just be an aware consumer, and everyone will be safer," Bucklin said.
According to Yahoo News, Phil Caruso, Walgreens spokesperson, issued a statement that reads, "We're sorry this occurred and we apologized to the patient. We have a multistep prescription filling process with numerous safety checks in each step to reduce the chance of human error. We reviewed this incident and will work to prevent it from happening again."