Latest news with #SarahPaquin
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- 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
3 days ago
- 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
Vancouver Sun
4 days ago
- Health
- Vancouver Sun
Pharmacy hands Comox mom opioid instead of ADHD drugs for child, 9
A Comox couple is warning other parents to double check their children's prescriptions after a pharmacy wrongly dispensed opioids for their nine-year-old instead of ADHD medication. Sarah Paquin, mother of three young children, said the medication mixup could have been catastrophic for her son. 'As a parent, you worry enough as it is, and then to have such a close call like that, it really hits home.' Paquin said she went to the Shopper's Drug Mart pharmacy on Guthrie Road in Comox on May 28 to pick up her son's medication — dextroamphetamine, a stimulant used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Sunrise will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. She said the employee had difficulty finding her son's medication. The employee asked for the boy's name multiple times, and initially couldn't find his name in the system, Paquin said. Once she dispensed the medication, the employee didn't read over the label or confirm information, as is the usual custom, the mom said. The next morning, Paquin's husband, David Paquin, hesitated before giving his son the medication, noting the pills were a different colour. When he checked the label, he saw the drug was the painkiller hydromorphone, which goes by the name Dilaudid. The patient's name on the hydromorphone label was a woman they didn't know. Hydromorphone is about five to seven times more potent than morphine, according to a Canadian Medical Association Journal study. Sarah Paquin said when her husband told her about the error, her heart sank until she realized their son hadn't been given the medication. 'We were like, Oh my God, that was such a close call,' said Paquin. 'It's terrifying. We were very upset about it.' David Paquin dropped his son off at school and went straight back to the pharmacy and spoke to the pharmacist, whom he described as visibly upset and apologetic. She refunded the money paid for the wrong medication, but still couldn't find the correct prescription. The order had to be refilled. The owner of the pharmacy called the couple Wednesday to reassure them their son's medication wasn't given to anyone else, 'which makes me feel a little bit better because on the flip side, I don't want my son's medication to hurt the wrong person either,' said Paquin. She posted her story on a local Facebook page to warn other parents, where she learned of other complaints about the same pharmacy employee, who has been suspended pending an internal investigation. Paquin has also filed a formal complaint with the College of Pharmacists of B.C. and was told by the college it would take about two weeks to investigate and follow up with the family. Paquin said she regretted not double-checking the label, a mistake she said she won't make again. She's warning other parents to exercise the same diligence. A West Shore couple spoke to the Times Colonist in March 2023 after a Langford pharmacy gave their son an oral suspension of sleep medication that was 14 times the prescribed dose. Paquin said she and her husband are unnerved by the 'what ifs' that replay in their minds. 'We could have given him this, sent him off to school not realizing, and he could have overdosed. He could have ended up in a coma and at the very least, probably would have had his stomach pumped.' In a statement, Loblaw, the parent company for Shopper's Drug Mart, called the mistake a case of 'human error' that shouldn't have happened. The company said controls are in place to minimize the risk of patients being handed the wrong prescription, and those controls will be reviewed by employees. The company said the pharmacy owner has reached out to the parents to apologize for any stress the incident caused and to outline corrective steps it's taking. ceharnett@
CBC
4 days ago
- Business
- CBC
B.C. mom picks up her son's ADHD medication, is given an opioid instead
A mother on Vancouver Island is warning people to double check their prescriptions after she was accidentally dispensed the powerful opioid hydromorphone instead of her son's regular ADHD medication. Comox, B.C., resident Sarah Paquin, 31, says she still shudders to think about what could have happened to her nine-year-old son had her husband not noticed the medication looked different before he gave it to him. "It was terrifying," Paquin said, standing in her front yard and playing with one of her three young boys. "One simple little mistake like that could have ended horribly." WATCH | 9-year-old dispensed opioid in pharmacy mix-up: Pharmacy mix-up leaves child with hydromorphone pills 15 hours ago Duration 1:58 A mother on Vancouver Island is warning people to check their prescriptions very carefully after a close call for their son. As Maryse Zeidler reports, she and her husband found that their pharmacy accidentally dispensed the wrong medication. Paquin says she didn't think too much of it when she went to pick up her son Declan's medication last week and the staff member at her local Shoppers Drug Mart pharmacy didn't check her ID or take out the prescription from the bag. The next day, her husband was about to give Declan his medication when he saw the pills were a different colour and shape than normal. Her husband looked at the bottle and noticed the prescription was for someone else, and that it was for five milligrams of hydromorphone. Right away he returned the pills to the pharmacy. "Immediately your mind goes to the worst case scenario," Paquin said. "The results could have been catastrophic and it just makes my heart sink to think about what could have happened." Hydromorphone is a powerful opioid that is two to eight times stronger than morphine and is often used to treat acute pain or chronic cancer pain. According to the Mayo Clinic, it can cause serious unwanted effects or fatal overdose in children. Human error CBC News reached out to Loblaws, the company that owns Shoppers Drug Mart. In a written statement, the company said the incident was a case of "human error" 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 company said. Paquin says she has since heard from the pharmacist, who was very apologetic. She says he acknowledged that steps were missed and standards were dropped, and told her the employee who dispensed the medication has been suspended pending an internal investigation. Asking for accountability Despite his reassurances, Paquin has filed a complaint with the College of Pharmacists of B.C. "The pharmacy needs to take responsibility, be held accountable for what happened," she said. In an email, the college told CBC News it takes these types of errors very seriously. "We have legal requirements in the Health Professions Act bylaws in place to prevent these occurrences, including mandatory standards for prescription preparation to ensure accuracy of the prescription product and consultations for all prescriptions, to make sure clients understand their medication, how to take it properly, and address any questions," the college said. As part of pharmacists' consultation with clients, they are required to confirm the person's identity, name and the strength and purpose of the drug, it added. In 2023-24, the college says it received a total of 990 concerns through its intake process. Of those, 54 became formal complaints and investigations, 16 of which were medication related. Paquin decided to share her ordeal on social media, to warn others to check their prescription before taking it. "It's scary that it happened to us, but I'm also in a way kind of thankful that it happened to us and we caught it because it could have been given to somebody who didn't notice and got hurt," she said.
