Meridian Child Given 4 Times Too Much Medicine By Pharmacy

I've never thought of this happening. I always trust that what I get from the pharmacy is the correct dosage and medication, but a terrible mistaken happened to this Meridian family and it could have cost them their daughter's life.

Dave Gallup's 8-year-old daughter has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hemochromatosis. The disease causes her severe pain in her joints and she takes medication to control that pain.

According to an article on KTVB that discusses the pharmacy's error in detail, Dave Gallup picked up her daughter's prescription refill seven months ago and then things started to go wrong.

The little girl started complaining of stomach pain, which was unusual. He took his daughter to the hospital and was told she was having problems with her liver. Liver problems can be a side effect of her prescription for Celecoxib, but the 8-year-old had never had these complications before.

As the family took a closer look at the situation, they realized that her pills were 200 milligrams instead of the usual 50-milligram pills that she takes. If the error had not been caught and she continued to take the pills, her liver damage could have been life-threatening.

Nicki Chopski, a spokesperson for the Idaho State Board of Pharmacy, said prescription errors

do happen, but it's rare and small in percentage. Only five to 10 errors are reported a year.

I'll be honest, I've never double-checked my prescriptions before, but this story is a great reminder that human error does occur and we should always check to make sure what we are taking is right.

Thank goodness this little girl is going to be okay.