Suit: Chemo drug led to miscarriage

[tkj24]

Suit: Chemo drug led to miscarriage
Bloomberg News
October 19, 2007

Digg Del.icio.us Facebook Fark Google Newsvine Reddit Yahoo Print Single page view Reprints Reader feedback Text size: Walgreen Co. has been sued by a Missouri woman and her husband who claim she had a miscarriage after a prescription for prenatal vitamins was filled with a chemotherapy drug carrying a similar brand name.

Walgreens failed to properly supervise pharmacy personnel who dispensed the medicine to Chanda Givens instead of what her doctor prescribed, lawyers for Givens and her husband, Courtenay, said in a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in St. Louis. Givens had a miscarriage after taking the drug for less than a month.

Spokesman Michael Polzin said the Deerfield-based firm has a multistep prescription filling process with numerous safety checks to reduce human error. He declined to comment on the allegations, saying, "We have not seen the complaint."




Givens received a prescription for Materna, a prenatal vitamin, on March 6. The pharmacist at her local Walgreens instead gave her Matulane, used to treat Hodgkin's disease. The drug is designed to interfere with the growth of cells by blocking their ability to split and reproduce, the complaint states.

 

[kat2220]

That is so sad. The Walgreens here told Mr Kat that were not allowed to refill a scrip he had been given while he was hositalized when he had his last surgery. We no longer patronize Walgreens.

 

[barelypure]

Well I hate to hear all this bad news about Walgreens. We have a CVS we normally go to but it is such a pain to get in and out due to the corner its on. Walgreens is building across the street which will be much more convenient.

 

[DeeDee]

How extremely sad. I use Rite Aid on Monday I had to get a prescription filled and was in line behind a woman she a bottle of pills with her, I heard her say to the girl at the counter that she has taken the same pills for 5 years and she knows the ones they gave her are not the same thing. Not sure what happened with it as I dropped my prescription and did a little shopping until it was ready but the woman was still waiting and when I left I thought wow I wonder how many times pharmacys screw up and people don't even know.