Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Close Call


Something happened yesterday that has me a little shaken up. My youngest son, Mason, has cough that just doesn't seem to be getting better. I took him to the doctor and was given a prescription for cough syrup. We dropped it off at the pharmacy on our way home. No big deal, right?
We ate dinner and then went back to pick up the prescription. The lady at the counter explained the medicine and went over the dosage with me. Pretty standard... She was saying that the cough medicine was pretty strong because it has Codeine in it, so I should use it as little as possible. One problem. The dose that was put on my sons prescription said that he should have 1 1/4 teaspoons.
I questioned her about the dosage and she took a second look. She came back and proceeded to tell me that there was an "error" and that the correct dose, for my 20 month old son, is 1/4 teaspoon.
I sat there in shock. Even now, I keep playing the "what if's" through my mind.
If I hadn't questioned her about the dose. I would have come home and given him 4 times the amount that his little body could handle. My baby would probably have died in his sleep.
I want to let you know that she did pull out the prescription again and it was not an error on the doctors part. He had written the correct dose.
So for my realization. I feel like this is a wake up call. You see things like this on the news all the time. As a parent, I can not assume that what's on the label is always correct. It's my job to double check EVERYTHING. The truth is that people DO make mistakes. Thank God this one was caught before something terrible happened.
I can say this. I will not be so naive in the future.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Omg...I got shivers reading this, yes it's true people do make mistakes, but you have to have a certain amount of trust in people who shovel out medicine for a living!!! Makes me think of what happened to Dennis Quaids twins when the hospital overdosed their medication...they lived, but man, scary! I think that everyone should always double check things like that, I know I do. Scary, I'm so glad you checked, I wish your little guy a speedy speedy recovery! I'm sure you're still shook up!

Lisa said...

Rain- You're right. I am still very shaken up. I just know that there are so many of us who just assume that our prescriptions are right. Not me, not anymore.

Anonymous said...

Man that would have been scary. Things like that scare me for when the time comes when I am a parent too. My Mom used to give us that cough syrup too when we were little. Good thing it was caught though.

Ugh pharmacies, yesterday I went to pick up my asthma medicine and they said it was already picked up. For a second I thought maybe my Mom picked it up for me but nope. They gave it to someone else. It is true, people make mistakes.