Latest news with #medicationerror
Globe and Mail
2 days ago
- Health
- Globe and Mail
Ontario long-term care worker charged in death of resident given wrong medications
A woman has been charged in connection with the death of an elderly man after a medication dispensing error in a Northern Ontario long-term care residence. Michelle Biglow, 62, faces a count of criminal negligence causing bodily harm, the Ontario Provincial Police said in a statement Monday. The name of the woman charged by the OPP matches that of a registered practical nurse who resigned from the College of Nurses of Ontario on March 28 of this year. The OPP said the charge stemmed from the death last year of a 93-year-old man living at a long-term care facility in the town of Iroquois Falls. The police said an incident occurred on May 17, 2024 that caused 'medical distress' in the man. He was taken to a local hospital, where he died on May 24. No further details were provided, but the only LTC facility in Iroquois Falls is the 69-bed South Centennial Manor. According to a source, the case involved medications wrongfully dispensed at South Centennial. The Globe and Mail is not disclosing the name of the source because they were not authorized to speak with the media. According to a report by the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care, an inspection was conducted at South Centennial between June 4 and 6, 2024 after a medication incident involving a resident. 'A registered staff member administered medications to several residents and did not follow the home's medication administration policies,' the report says. 'As a result, one of the residents received the wrong medications causing a change in their health status.' The report added that a second staffer responded to the problem by giving the resident a medication that was also not appropriate for them. Both staffers acknowledged that they had failed to make sure that the resident wouldn't receive the wrong medications, says the report, dated June 12, 2024. 'Failure to ensure that registered staff members followed the home's medication policies and that drugs administered to residents were prescribed for them, resulted in harm to a resident and put other residents in the home at risk of harm due to unsafe medication practices,' the report says. The document also mentioned that a staffer was involved in two separate medication incidents over a month. It was not clear from the report whether this was one of the employees mentioned in the other incident. The LTC's licensee, Anson General Hospital in Iroquois Falls, was ordered to ensure that registered staff who administer drugs be trained on the home's policies relating to medication management system. The licensee was also asked to audit medications administration three times a week for at least a month. A follow-up report, dated Aug. 26, said the home had complied with the previous inspection's orders. Iroquois Falls is 70 kilometres northeast of Timmins. According to a funeral home notice, 93-year-old Roger Sauvé of Iroquois Falls died on May 24, 2024, at Anson General Hospital, in Iroquois Falls. He was a long-time paper mill employee and member of Knight of Columbus who was survived by five children, 10 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. The source confirmed that Mr. Sauvé is the man who died at South Centennial. A director at South Centennial Manor declined to comment, hanging up the phone without disclosing her name. Paul Chatelain, Anson General Hospital's chief executive officer and long-term care administrator, didn't respond to voicemail and e-mail messages.
BreakingNews.ie
01-07-2025
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
Family of woman who died after getting wrong medicine from pharmacy settle court case
The family of a woman who allegedly collapsed and later died after taking medicine supplied by her local pharmacy which was intended for another customer has settled a High Court action over her death. Margaret Corcoran (73), a mother of two and grandmother of six, was found in a collapsed state at her home in Tymonville Park, Tallaght, Dublin, on October 9th, 2022. Advertisement She was transferred to hospital where she was found to have suffered a brain injury. Ms Corcoran did not recover and died in hospital 11 days later on October 20th, 2022. In the proceedings it was claimed that a blister pack of medication which was prescribed for another person with the same first name was mistakenly delivered to Ms Corcoran six days before she was found collapsed in her home. The family's counsel, Esther Earley BL, instructed by O'Brien & Co Solicitors, told the High Court the case had been settled and it was before the court for approval the division of the statutory €35,000 mental distress solatium payment. The settlement is without an admission of liability. Ms Corcoran's sister, Marian Reilly, of Lucan, Dublin, had sued Glenview Pharmacy Ltd, with a registered address at Upper Baggot Street, Dublin, and trading as Meaghers Pharmacy, over the death of her sister. Advertisement On October 3rd, 2022, it was claimed that a blister pack of tablets was prepared at Meagher's Pharmacy, Castletymon Park Shopping Centre, Tymon Road, Tallaght, for dispatch to Ms Corcoran. However, it was alleged that an incorrect blister pack meant for someone else was sent to Ms Corcoran. In the proceedings it was claimed there was a failure to exercise the appropriate level of care, skill and diligence that Ms Corcoran was entitled to expect in relation to dispatching her prescription medication to her home. It was also claimed there was a failure to have any or any adequate system of checks and safeguards in place to ensure that prescriptions and medication dispensed were checked and rechecked to ensure that they were dispatched to the correct customer. Advertisement Somebody else's prescription was wrongly and mistakenly delivered to Ms Corcoran, it was alleged. It was contended there was a failure to contact Ms Corcoran urgently or at all to ensure that she did not consume the medication when they ought to have known the significant risks the medication posed for her. It was claimed that sub-standard pharmacy services had been provided to Ms Corcoran. At an inquest in March last year into the death of Ms Corcoran, her sister Ms Reilly described finding her sister on the ground beside her bed in an unresponsive state with 'frothing from her mouth.' Ireland Woman had fatal seizure after being given wrong pr... Read More A representative of Meaghers Pharmacy Group at the inquest offered the company's 'most heartfelt condolences' to Ms Corcoran's family. Advertisement She said the pharmacy only became aware that the wrong medication had been given to Ms Corcoran after it had been contacted by a nurse following Ms Corcoran's admission to the hospital. The Coroner's Court also heard that afterwards storage at the nine Meaghers Pharmacy outlets had been rearranged and labels on all prescription bags are now double checked by two staff members, including one who must be a pharmicist A verdict of death by misadventure was returned.
BBC News
30-06-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Kinmel Lodge care home resident dies after medication overdose
A care home resident was given an overdose of medication which contributed to his death, an inquest has chip shop owner John Collinson - known as Ricky - from Llanfairfechan in Conwy county died in August 2022, eight weeks after he was given 10 times more than his correct dose of medication over four 88-year-old lived at Kinmel Lodge in Kinmel Bay at the time, and had been mobile and physically active before the error was made, but afterwards became mostly confined to his bed, the hearing in Ruthin, Denbighshire, was told on Monday.A coroner concluded the medication error "more than minimally" contributed to his death. Mr Collinson died from bilateral pulmonary emboli - a blockage of the lungs - as a result of a deep vein thrombosis, a type of blood clot, the inquest was son, Kevin Collinson, described how the father-of-five had lived at Kinmel Lodge for about two years after developing dementia, and had been started on a low dose the drug risperidone in January 2022, to help calm his outbursts of added his dad had been physically mobile, even dancing at Elizabeth II's jubilee celebration just a few weeks before he suddenly became "wiped out" and confined to his bed, and he knew something was not right when he visited on 1 July Collinson said he was initially told that nothing was amiss with his father's dosage, but a few days later a manager at the care home realised that he was being given two 2.5ml doses of risperidone instead of the prescribed 0.25ml twice a day. The inquest heard the error had occurred as a result of a miscalculation after Mr Collinson's medication changed from being administered in pill form to being given in liquid Leuty, the manager of Kinmel Lodge, said that, though it was "no excuse", at the time Mr Collinson was one of the first residents to be given their medication in liquid added the measurements on the syringe provided with the medication had been "unclear", but that practices had since been changed at the care home, with a new digital system introduced for medicine Leuty said that as soon as the error was realised, they contacted the GP, who advised the medication be stopped, and informed the evidence to the inquest, Dr Abdul Karim Tuma, a psychiatrist with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board, said he had been involved in the treatment of John Collinson and had visited him a few weeks after the overdose, at another care home where he had been added his impression was that Mr Collinson was "ill, physically and mentally" and "very confused, acutely confused over and above his chronic confusion from his dementia", as well as being "not mobile at all". John Gittins, coroner for north Wales, east and central, said that following the dispensing errors between 1 and 4 July 2022, Mr Collinson became increasingly "sedated and immobile, and at no time did he return to base level of activity".Following the conclusion, Mr Collinson's daughter, Rhian Collinson, said the family was relieved that the coroner had made the link between the drug overdosing and her father's death, adding it had been a long three years to get to this Collinson described their father as a happy man and prankster who had enjoyed spending time with his family on walks by the added that his death was premature and they had been "greedy" for more time with him.
Daily Mail
10-06-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
ADHD drug mix-up led to my son, 6, receiving lethal dose of highly addictive meds... my warning to parents
A mix up at a pharmacy proved nearly fatal after a six-year-old's ADHD medication was accidentally swapped with a lethal dose of opioids. Sarah Paquin, a mother-of-three from British Columbia in Canada, said her son Declan had been taking dextroamphetamine to treat his attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder for years. Paquin picked up his prescription as she always did from a local Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy, and didn't notice anything unusual. However, when her husband David went to give Declan his daily medication the next morning, he noticed the pills were a different color. When he checked the label on the bottle, he realized it contained a high dose of the opioid hydromorphone and the name on the prescription was of a woman the family didn't know. Hydromorphone is around four times more potent than morphine. The medication has the possibility of causing life-threatening breathing problems. This risk is particularly high for children due to their smaller size and weight. 'It's just terrifying. We put our trust in these local professionals to be upholding their end,' Paquin said. She's urging people to double-check their medication labels. She told CTV News: '[The pills] were in his hands. 'He would have had this high dosage of morphine and been sent off to school, unknowingly... I think this was entirely avoidable.' Mr Paquin immediately returned the medication to the pharmacy, where the pharmacist gave him a refund but she was unable to find the correct prescription. The order had to be refilled. Commenting on the matter, a spokesperson for Shoppers Drug Mart's parent company, Loblaw PR, told 'Upon review with the store, we have learned this was a case of human error, one that never should have happened. 'We have controls in place to minimize risks like this - where the patient was handed the wrong prescription bag - and the associate will review these with employees to avoid a similar situation in the future. 'The owner of this location has reached out to the patient's parents to apologize for any undue stress this may have caused, and to outline the corrective steps.' The Paquin family say they have also been informed the pharmacist responsible for the error has been suspended. They now want to make their story public in a bid to warn other parents about the importance of being vigilant. Mrs Paquin says: '[Patients and parents should] double, triple, quadruple-check every prescription you pick up, whether you've been going to that pharmacy for years, whether it's a medication you've been on for years.' The Paquins have also filed a complaint with the College of Pharmacists of British Columbia about the incident. The organization regulates all pharmacies in the province. The FDA receives over 100,000 reports related to medication errors annually, with these contributing to up to 9,000 deaths. In 2022, a former Tennessee nurse was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a patient who was accidentally given the wrong medication. RaDonda Vaught, 37, was also convicted of gross neglect of an impaired adult in a case that fixed the attention of patient safety advocates and nurses' organizations around the country. Vaught injected the paralyzing drug vecuronium into 75-year-old Charlene Murphey instead of the sedative Versed on December 26, 2017.
CTV News
06-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
B.C. mom calls for stricter controls after opioids swapped for son's ADHD medicine
A mother on Vancouver Island is speaking out after she says she was accidentally given the wrong medicine for her son's ADHD. A mother on Vancouver Island is speaking out after she says she was accidentally given the wrong medicine for her son's ADHD. Shoppers Drug Mart says an internal investigation is underway after a mix-up at one of its pharmacies in British Columbia dispensed a powerful prescription painkiller in place of a young child's ADHD medication. Sarah Paquin says her son Declan has been taking dextroamphetamine to treat his ADHD for years, typically sourced from the same Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy in Comox where the prescription was again refilled last week. 'It wasn't until the next morning, when my husband went to give our son the medication before school, that he noticed that they were a different colour,' she told CTV News. When her husband checked the label on the bottle, he saw that the pills contained a high dosage of hydromorphone, a highly addictive opiate used to treat severe pain. Paquin says her son was moments away from ingesting the drug. 'They were in his hands,' she said. 'He would have had this high dosage of morphine and been sent off to school, unknowingly.' Paquin's husband returned the prescription later that day and told the pharmacist what had happened. The franchise owner called the family on Wednesday to apologize, she said. 'He did also let me know that the employee that I dealt with has been suspended while they do their own internal investigation,' Paquin added. In a statement Thursday, Shoppers Drug Mart's parent company Loblaw described the medicine mix-up as 'a case of human error, one that never should have happened.' 'We have controls in place to minimize risks like this – where the patient was handed the wrong prescription bag,' the statement said, adding the store's management is reviewing those controls with employees to prevent similar mistakes in the future. 'The owner of this location has reached out to the patient's parents to apologize for any undue stress this may have caused, and to outline the corrective steps,' the statement concluded. Paquin says she has filed a complaint with the College of Pharmacists of B.C. about the potentially dangerous error. She urges all patients and parents to 'double-, triple-, quadruple-check every prescription you pick up, whether you've been going to that pharmacy for years, whether it's a medication you've been on for years.' The College of Pharmacists of B.C., which regulates all pharmacies in the province, declined an interview about the incident and would not answer specific questions about the mistake, citing patient privacy concerns. Instead, college spokesperson Lesley Chang provided an emailed statement confirming the regulator has been in contact with the family. 'The College of Pharmacists of B.C. takes all medication incidents very seriously, as public health and safety is our highest priority,' Chang wrote. 'It's important to know that pharmacists are legally required to speak with clients about the prescriptions they are picking up. The consultation is to make sure clients understand their medication, how to take it properly, and address any questions. As part of this, pharmacists are required to confirm client identity, name and strength of drug, purpose of drug, directions, and other information with the client or their representative at the time of dispensing.' Despite those requirements, Paquin says steps to verify the right medication went to the right patient were missed. 'It's just terrifying. We put our trust in these local professionals to be upholding their end,' she said. 'I think this was entirely avoidable.' With files from CTV News Vancouver Island's Andy Garland
