What should the penalty be?
August 14, 2008
Two Orlando, FL parents said they’re outraged after a pharmacy made a mistake that claimed the life of their 3-year-old son.
Sebastian Ferrero was prescribed 10 times the amount of a growth drug that he needed. The Ferrero family said the pharmacist involved received the minimum punishment for the mistake.
His parents said the decision to fine the Shands Hospital pharmacist responsible for filling their son’s prescription is just a slap on her wrist and a slap in their face.
The 3-year-old died last October. The family blames the pharmacist’s error.
The Ferreros took Sebastian to Shands Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville to see why he wasn’t growing as fast as he should.
The hospital said the outpatient pharmacy and pharmacist Edna Irizarry accidentally gave Sebastian 10 times the amount of the growth medicine that had been prescribed, and It turned out to be a deadly overdose.
At a hearing in Orlando, the Florida Board of Pharmacy decided to discipline Irizarry by giving her a $1,000 fine and $2,400 in investigative costs. She must also attend an eight-hour continuing education course on how to fill prescriptions.
The Ferreros believe that the punishment was not enough.
“The damage inflicted to the patient, our son, was the worst possible: death,” Horst Ferrero said.
They said they’ll send a letter to the governor, asking him to launch an investigation. They said they want him to make the pharmacist’s and board’s mistakes right.
The Ferreros received an $850,000 settlement from the hospital. The family said it plans to use the money to help build a new Children’s Hospital, in hopes that this kind of medical mistake never happens again.
In the case of Emily Jerry, pharmacist Eric Cropp was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter when he missed a technician error that caused the death of the 2 year old girl.
We all agree 1 error is too many. Pharmacists are overworked and many technicians are underqualified. These errors are not always caused by gross negligence and firing and arresting pharmacists who make a tragic mistake will not solve the issue.
How many more deaths must occur before we get to the root of the problem?
(portions of article ©2008 WESH.com; Orlando, FL)
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When did any one person become perfect? While I feel for the family for their loss, are they not aware that unfortunate accidents happen? I have faced this situation personally myself. While we have in place checks and rechecks to prevent errors unfortunately they still happen. I peronally would have paid any dollar amount, served any and all time in jail, or whatever it would have taken to prevent my error from happening. The family has to realize that the pharmacist that made this error has to face it each day. As long as this is not a repeated situation for this pharmacist I feel with the hospital paying damages to the family the punishment for the pharmacist is relavent. As the saying goes hid sight is 20/20. My thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the pharmacist involved.