Personal Injury Law

Walgreens Pharmacy Held Accountable for Prescription Error

By Randall Udelman, Esq.

A Coconino County jury awarded one of the largest wrongful death verdicts to the family of a high school coach who died after taking a lethal combination of medications which should never have been dispensed together. The jury found that Walgreens pharmacy should have warned the patient and his physician about the lethal and toxic effects that the pain medications Tramadol and Methadone have when taken together. Presumably, the jury believed that the pharmacy had the last known opportunity to prevent a lethal combination of drugs from getting into the hands of a patient who did not have any idea about the toxic effects of these drugs when administered together. The jury likely concluded that Walgreens pharmacy should have discovered the extreme lethal dangers when technicians first input both prescriptions into the pharmacy computer system. Unfortunately, I do not believe that this prescription error was an isolated occurrence in pharmacies throughout the nation. Pharmacy prescription errors are a leading cause of death and injury in our country. Additionally, medical errors in general affect one in ten patients worldwide.

Full post as published by Phoenix Personal Injury Lawyer on October 16, 2007 (boomark / email).