Nov 6, 2005 7:21 pm US/Central
Prescription Mixup Nearly Ended Woman's Life
by John Reger
Ely, Minn. (WCCO) ―
A woman from Ely, Minn. almost died after her pharmacy filled her prescription with the wrong medicine.
Betty Salerno's troubles began five years ago when she went to her usual drugstore for a refill of the pills she takes for a palsy condition. Within days, she had a major seizure.
"I was scared," Betty Salerno recalled. "Nobody knew what was wrong with me."
"She was moaning and groaning incoherently," her husband, Frank Salerno, said. "She kept saying 'Cold ... cold,' and she was just shaking. I thought she was dying."
After being hospitalized, she went back home to her own pill bottle. Soon, she had another seizure and a heart attack.
After more seizures and hospital stays, the Mayo Clinic finally uncovered the problem: The label on her prescription bottle said it was her palsy medicine, but the pills inside were actually glyburide. Glyburide is a drug for diabetes that lowers blood sugar and makes the heart do extra work.
"Her doctor's testified ... had the mystery not been solved, had she continued to take the remaining pills in the bottle in question, it probably would have caused death," said Harry Sieben, Betty Salerno's attorney.
Between 1970 and 2000 in the U.S., 131,000 people died from prescription drug accidents; 97 percent were related to the wrong dose or the wrong drug taken accidentally.
A jury recently awarded Betty Salerno $253,000 after deciding her drugstore's negligence in giving her the wrong pills led to her heart attack.
"I trusted them implicitly," Betty Salerno said. "I'd been using them for years. I had no reason to mistrust them."
Betty Salerno is 72 now, and she's still taking medicine for the tremors she gets from her palsy condition. But now she worries every day about the effects of her heart attack.
Her doctors told the jury she's now susceptible to more heart attacks and even sudden death.
If you want to make sure you're getting the right prescription, it all starts with your doctor. Make sure you can read what your prescription is for. Ask how to use it, and ask about its side effects.
When you pick up your prescription at your drugstore, ask for it by its name, and ask again about its use and its side effects. Make sure you also read the label.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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