Walgreens Wrongful Death Lawsuit
The Louisville Courier-Journal (2/17, Riley) reports that in Kentucky, the estate of Mary Moore, of Louisville, “has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Walgreens drugstore in Jeffersontown and one of its pharmacists, (Anthony Bower is named as the pharmacist in charge that day at the store) claiming she died as the result of getting the wrong prescription.”
In the lawsuit, Moore’s family alleges that “presented a prescription to Walgreens for hydralazine, a high blood pressure medication, in November 2010 but instead received an antihistamine, hydroxyzine.” The decedent “had previously been hospitalized with high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and kidney failure, according to the suit, which claims hydroxyzine is a high-risk medicine for the elderly that’s known to cause confusion and oversedation.”
According to the lawsuit, “Moore was not given counseling regarding the medication she was given, where the pharmacist would have noticed the mistake.”
Moore’s hypertension went untreated for two weeks before the error was discovered and the pharmacy substituted the correct medication, “but it was too late” and Moore was soon hospitalized and died, according to the suit.
