Most of us trust that the medication in our bottle is the one our doctor prescribed. That trust covers many people. More than 50% of American adults take a monthly prescription, and by age 60, that figure rises to 85%. When something goes wrong, the results can be devastating. An estimated 7,000 to 9,000 patients die each year from medication errors, with total losses reaching $21 billion.
These errors usually happen in one of two places.
Errors can start at the factory
The first is packaging and labeling. A bottle says it holds one medication, but actually contains another.
More than 200,000 bottles labeled as clopidogrel, a critical anti-clotting drug, actually contained simvastatin, a cholesterol medication. The FDA traced the problem to the assembly line. At least one unlabeled bottle of simvastatin was left on the line and then labeled as clopidogrel.
How the problem was handled made it worse. Walmart knew about the issue by December 28, 2017. Its recall letter was dated January 29, 2018, more than 30 days later. Each bottle held a 30-day supply. A patient who waited a month for notice would have already taken every wrong pill. The letters also went out by mail rather than by phone, even though pharmacists in Missouri and many other states must keep patients’ phone numbers on file.
Errors can happen at the pharmacy counter
The second source of errors is the pharmacy itself. A pharmacist may transcribe a drug name incorrectly, give the wrong dose, or miss a documented interaction between a patient’s medications.
The Missouri case Oyler v. Hy-Vee shows how serious these mistakes can be. A patient received a daily dose of methotrexate instead of metolazone. Methotrexate is a chemotherapy and rheumatoid arthritis drug that can be deadly when taken daily. A pharmacy technician who had moved over from the store’s floral department made the transcription error. The supervising pharmacist knew daily methotrexate could be deadly, but in his own words, “It didn’t click in my mind.”
Hy-Vee’s own practice called for reviewing new prescriptions twice, once before filling and again after. The court concluded that the pharmacist failed to conduct any meaningful review, showing the kind of conscious disregard that endangered our client and ultimately led to her death.
What families should watch for
When a loved one dies unexpectedly or after an injury, it’s recommended to look at the prescriptions the person was taking. Toxicology findings that don’t match the decedent’s prescriptions, whether a prescribed drug is missing or an unprescribed one is present, often point to a medication error worth investigating.
Why these cases matter
Litigation does more than compensate families. It pressures pharmacies, manufacturers, labelers, and distributors to adopt better safety protocols. Those protocols can help reduce the 7,000 to 9,000 deaths that medication errors cause every year.
Langdon & Emison brings the resources and trial experience to these claims. Contact us to review your case.
