I received the 40mg prozac instead of simvastatin. The bottle said simvastatin on it.The pharmacy made mistake

Question

I was given simvastatin for high colesterol. I had taken that for 1 mo. and got a refill but the pills looked different. I just figured they changed the pill. the bottle said simvastatin on it. I didnt have a problem taking the 1st prescription but every time i tried to take the 2nd one I had really bad heartburn and i couldn;t go to sleep. i was to take 1ea nite before going to bed but these i couldn't. finally i decided after taking about 15 pills in 30 days that something is not working with these pills. the last nite I took the pill was so bad the next day i couldn't swallow very easially.took the pills back to the pharmacy and right away they told me i had been given the wrong pills, prozac 40mg to be exact. I have told the pharm/dr./lawyer all what happen and have had upper gi and now have to go to a specialist due 2 scar tissue on my schatzkis ring but have to prove that it happened from prozac. never had this problem till now.i live in utah, morman country what would u do..

Answer 1

don't sue, it was a mistake. Didn't YOU notice the different look? Just get your other pills and move on. Would you want to be sued over a mistake? I don't understand what you're asking here. You should have seen the doc or made a call sooner as soon as you had adverse symptoms.

Answer 2

Yes, a huge mistake was made.
Get a good lawyer and sue the Pharmacy.

You need to see a doctor and have him make a diagnosis that says the damage was caused by the Prozac, but you still have a valid case.

Prozac is normally a fairly safe antidepressant and I have taken both Simvastatitn and Prozac at the same time, as prescribed by my doctor. However to avoid Heartburn I take an additional medication.

The Prozac should not have caused you much stomach damage and 15 days is not a long period of time to be taking it. However, the potential of damage that could have happened is enough to create a worthy law suit.

The Prozac could have upset your stomach enough to cause a burn from stomach acid, but then so could the Simvastatin, most drugs have that possible side effect. The problem is that you were lucky. The potential harm from that kind of mistake could easily have been fatal. You do not have to die to prove that you were at risk.

Then do what I do, when ever I pick up a medication I check the text printed on the bottle and I open the bottle to see that the correct medication is inside. Once I had a prescription filled at a military pharmacy. I got pain relief medication when I was supposed to get cold medication. I caught the mistake and I learned my lesson to not trust the pharmacists with my health. I visually inspect my medication when I get it. Of course I should have confidence in the Pharmacists and I should KNOW that they are giving me the correct medication. If you had been given say Prozac instead of Nitroglycerin for heart problems you could have died from a heart attack. If you never took either medication before then you wouldn't know what to look for and you could easily mistake one for the other and so die at the hands of the pharmacists.

This brings to light a recent problem in the industry. There are not enough pharmacists working and it is possible that a clerk who is not properly trained could have filled that order. Or the clerk could have gotten both orders correctly filled by the pharmacist and then switched the labels. This would mean that someone with possible suicidal depression is being treated for high cholesterol and that also is life threatening. Your lawyer should subpoena the pharmacy records to see if more mistakes were made and bring those people into the law suit. The more mistakes that can be proven the better your case will be.

Have your lawyer subpoena the employee records and find out who was working at the time you got your prescription filled. Did a pharmacist fill your prescription, label it and ring it up or was a clerk involved? The clerk is more likely to make a mistake and by using the clerk to do that the pharmacy was putting your life at risk by using unqualified employees.

Having taken both medications I know they are very dissimilar and I could have noticed the mistake right away, so should any qualified pharmacist. A mistake in confusing those medications is one that could only be made by someone who doesn’t know what they are doing. A mistake in the labels is easy to do and a pretty simple one to make, but with something as critical as your health at stake the pharmacy should have taken more care.

Answer 3

Take the prozac get crazy and file a lawsuit

Answer 4

Awesome, time to get high.