What is Digg?235 Comments
- ruforealz, on 07/16/2008, -10/+131Bah... this happens at pharmacies all around the country. This is just popular because it's the "evil walmart". A pharmacy is a pharmacy.
- inactive, on 07/16/2008, -1/+66The pharmacist made the mistake not Wal-Mart. The article is biased to the point of absurdity. Sure they can sue Wal-Mart (and they have every right to) but it needs to be made clear that Wal-Mart adheres to the same standards for their pharmacy staff as any other establishment would. Mistakes happen everywhere.
- darny, on 07/16/2008, -0/+46Pharmacies are operated by a licensed pharmacist. It shouldn't matter what corporation owns the actual pharmacy, it's the pharmacist's responsibility to do their jobs and not kill people.
- Tryptomine, on 07/16/2008, -1/+46It's a megastore where you're suppose to be able to buy everything easily and cheap. There's a lot of controversy surrounding it though that I won't go into. But still, the pharmacy is often almost like a separate entity from the stores they're attached to, and are usually quite professional. So a situation like this is rather unusual.
- admdrew, on 07/16/2008, -0/+29Agreed - AFAIK, Walmart employs pharmacists with qualifications similar to those at other major retail and grocery stores. Honestly, can someone claim Rite-aid or Walgreens pharmacies to be of higher quality than Target and Walmart?
- faust1200, on 07/16/2008, -2/+26Be paralyzed or disabled is worse IMHO.
- mayra1201, on 07/16/2008, -1/+24"We are supposed to be able to trust that the medication the pharmacy prepares won't kill us, or worse."
What could be worse!? - replaysMike, on 07/16/2008, -3/+23Sue. Sue. Sue. You deserve it, someone dropped the ball and they need to pay for that mistake.
- markgl, on 07/16/2008, -3/+20Walmart didn't do it, the pharmacist at walmart did it. wal mart haters.
- thecardmechanic, on 07/16/2008, -0/+15This is only big because it's a major company. Wal-Mart pharmacists are "real" pharmacists. The one in my city makes about 150k. No one is perfect. Feel sorry for the guy though. That really sucks.
- CozmoNz, on 07/16/2008, -14/+28Isn't walmart (sorry im in Australia), like a store you buy the likes of furniture, cheap toys, the occasional iron and such from?
Why the hell wouldn't you goto the real pharmacy?!
Mind you, you would imagine they would have real pharmacists working at the walmart "pharmacy" area.... major ***** up from the idiot who poured the pure chemical from the "100% Oxycodone Hydrochoride Solution" Bottle to the smaller "5% Oxycodone Hydrochoride Solution" bottle....
I hope he sue's and gets millions.... - obliviousfool, on 07/16/2008, -2/+14I go to the Wal-Mart pharmacy (and actually no where else in Wal-Mart) because they have two prescriptions not covered by my insurance that are $80 everywhere else, and about $5 at Wal-Mart.
I have noticed that this place is constantly stressed to the breaking point. The last time I was there there was a lady behind the counter who was "helping" a customer by screaming the responses to his (admittedly) stupid questions. When he left, she screamed "I can help the next person in line!" That was me. "Sir! Are you waiting for a prescription!?" Everyone in line looked at each other, thinking the same thing, as in, yeah I'll wait in the line that doesn't involve screaming. I took the plunge, and when I told her my name she just thrust the prescriptions at me with the required "do-you-have-any-questions-for-the-pharmacist?" I said no, and she just stood there scowling at me. No smile. No "good day." She just expected me to leave. It was bizarre.
Rushing, screaming, stressful, dirty, and cheap. These are the words I would use to describe the Wal-Mart pharmacy. It really surprises me that they haven't made more deadly mistakes. - dk911, on 07/16/2008, -0/+11"We are supposed to be able to trust that the medication the pharmacy prepares won't kill us, or worse." Uhhh, what's worse than death??
Yes this is sad, but pharmacists are people too. They make mistakes and are fallible. Yes, the pharmacist should be held accountable. But this isn't some case of doing it on purpose, or the fact that it's Walmart. It could happen anywhere. - tnoy, on 07/16/2008, -0/+11Would you rather be dead, or in what doctors think is a coma and in excruciating pain that cant be detected for 20+ years?
- Ajajadude, on 07/16/2008, -0/+11This has nothing to do with the price and quality of merchandise in the store. It has to do with human error that can occur in any pharmacy, anywhere.
- inactive, on 07/16/2008, -0/+10I guarantee you pharmacy school is very competitive, even the worst performing graduating pharmacist is still a capable pharmacist. It makes no difference where you work, you still have to have the same license and you are still required to have comparable education to be a pharmacist.
- skipdog172, on 07/16/2008, -2/+12yay more baseless wal-mart hate!!! sorry, but pharmacies EVERYWHERE have problem with medical errors(ive seen it, i work in 2 hospitals). besides, it has nothing to do with who OWNS the pharmacy, it is the job of the LICENSED PHARMACIST to avoid errors. there is nobody to blame but him.
- KWhat, on 07/16/2008, -4/+14What doctor proscribes Oxycodone for pain associated with strep throat! Whats next morphine patches for headaches?
- silverzone, on 07/16/2008, -0/+10These Pharmacists go to the same schools, and get the same degrees. Just like in any professional fields, mistakes happen. Sure This may be serious but It could happen to anybody. Don't be hating on Wal Mart..
BTW: Sorry to Spamcrusher above me. I Basically said the same thing lol. - imightbewrong, on 07/16/2008, -0/+8i'm sure stuff like this happens a lot more than any of us would like to think. It Doesn't mean a Walmart pharmacy is any worse than a CVS or RiteAid
- Niightwitch, on 07/16/2008, -2/+10Oxycodone for a sore throat?? A bit of overkill when the doc could have prescribed something far less potent for such a minor pain.
- SealandRes1, on 07/16/2008, -0/+8Try 100mg/0.1grams Oxycodone Hydrochoride
- quazywabbit, on 07/16/2008, -1/+9why? easy they are cheap. its like ikea except not just furniture, housewears, etc.
- jordanday, on 07/16/2008, -0/+8The Wal-Mart pharmacy is a *real* pharmacy. A real pharmacist is the one running it, but unfortunately they are human beings and capable of making mistakes. In the USA, at least, all new pharmacists must get a doctorate (a PharmD) which is essentially 5 years of grad school, on top of however many years of undergrad you need. So, these are trained professionals with levels of knowledge similar to what you would expect from an M.D., although obviously the pharmacists specialize in the medication side of treatment, as opposed to diagnosis.
As others have noted, however, a lot of these "Big Box" stores that have pharmacies tend to under-staff them, which can result in anything from poor customer service like obliviousfool noted, to mixups of prescriptions, to problems like the one in this story.
If, however, the store is too busy for the pharmacy to keep up, it's the pharmacists job to slow things down and make sure everything is safe. Like I said, they're human too, so unfortunately accidents like this will occasionally happen. - PPCG4, on 07/16/2008, -0/+7The real problem here is prescribing something as awfully addictive as oxycodone to an 18 year old for a SORE THROAT. That's like swatting a fly with a sledge hammer. What ever happened to anti-inflammatory meds to relieve the root of the pain, instead of drugging up the patient so that the pain seems more manageable?
- Hassassin, on 07/16/2008, -3/+10What a lightweight! I could do 100 mg no problem!
- PacoDEmu, on 07/16/2008, -1/+7I suppose it's a good thing he's in that coma or he would be itching like mad from all that oxy...
- lcynicl, on 07/16/2008, -0/+6Good Grief, the store didn't make the mistake, the pharmacist made the error, but let's not blame him or his likely lack of education, or even the Doctor's illegible scribblings, but blame the company. That is the crappiest response I've ever seen.
- inactive, on 07/16/2008, -1/+7Lets remember that the pharmacist who made this mistake is a human being, who makes mistakes. It's sad that it happened, but these things do happen. I've seen Doctors make mistakes, and they all have really beat themselves up over it not because they fear a lawsuit (honestly, most medical staff don't fear lawsuits) but because people get into medicine to help and not hurt. I'm sure there is a pharmacist who is extremely upset he made this error. Sure, being upset at yourself will not make this kid better, but neither will the family becoming overnight millionaires. We can only hope other pharmacists learned from this terrible mistake and take sensible actions to prevent it from happening again.
- thrallie, on 07/16/2008, -2/+8So the kid had 2 grams of oxycodone in his system? My god that it is a lot.
- siszam, on 07/16/2008, -0/+5It is a "real" pharmacy and they fill some prescriptions for 5 to 10 dollars. Not all.
- Pake, on 07/16/2008, -0/+5I doubt they overwork and underpay pharmacist. Pharmacist are and have always been in demand and no one would work in Wal-Marts pharmacy if they weren't going to work the same and get paid the same as the pharmacist one block away working at another pharmacy.
- IpodCrazy, on 07/16/2008, -3/+8Common? It's not suppose to happen. Period.
- sirbeta, on 07/16/2008, -0/+5This has nothing to do with Wal-mart. It could have happened at any Pharmacy. Pharmacists that work at Wal-mart pharmacies are the same pharmacists that work at "real pharmacies." I know it's great to hate on Wal-mart and all, but really this has little to do with them and everything to do with the pharmacist making a big mistake.
It was a tragic thing to happen, but lets keep the blame where it's due and not use such a horrible incident to try to needlessly smear War-mart. - megaton, on 07/16/2008, -3/+8ALWAYS correlate what the doctor SAYS you should be taking with what you actually GET from the pharmacist. And even then, UNDERSTAND what it is s/he's prescribed you, what it's supposed to do, possible side effects, and what to do in case of an emergency. Unless you're unconscious or highly medicated, there's NO excuse for you not being aware of EXACTLY what's going into your body.
You wouldn't follow a GPS off the edge of a cliff, would you? (No, I'm not equating a piece of $200 gadgetry with a highly-trained medical professional. You know what I'm saying...) - douggmc, on 07/16/2008, -2/+6You're like the 30th ***** dolt to say the same thing. Are you an M.D.? If not, shut the ***** up ... until you go to school and training for another 10 years. Then you can decide what is an appropriate medication.
- cougar618, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4I would go as far as to lay some of the blame on the doctor. I can't seem to find anything on Oxycontin oral solution, but apparently it's dosed like roxanol... (morphine sulfate) 20mg/ml I can't think of any CII medicines that come in the standard X mg/5ml. All it takes is sloppy handwriting from the doctor's office to do something like this. Maybe if he wrote it better, or dosed it by mL instead of by mg, this would not have happened.
but still, this SHOULD NOT have happened. Where I work, the flash annoying screens for us techs about CII solutions like this, and more importantly, the pharmacist should have realized something was wrong.The website this story is from, ksl.com, says the direction was 1 teaspoon by mouth every 4 hours, and those bottles usually are dispensed in 30 mL bottles. So, the pharmacist here was clearly retarded, because they should have realized that you can't drink the entire bottle in one day and live.
Finally, the consumerist says that the medicine was suppose to be diluted... um no. they never dilute medicine in pharmacy for 4 reasons. 1) it would be a pain in the ass 2) they might not even pick it up (thats why amoxicillin is mixed when you pay for it, not before) 3)if you don't pick it up, it's returned to stock and 4) CII solutions are usually dispensed in an unopened bottle - Aadain, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4I think that's what is going on. Instead of denying they did anything wrong, Walmart is taking responsibility that one of their employees made a mistake that went against pharmacy standards. I don't really understand the outrage here against the article, so far the only person to do anything wrong was the pharmacist, and something tells me he's really suffering mentally for what he did to this poor boy. Walmart will pay for his medical bills (without a lawsuit) and most likely some extra money on top to compensate his family for any permanent disabilities he develops.
- Dralite, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4I'd first like to say that i'm not defending wal-mart or, more directly, the people involved... that's a insane mistake to make that could have been avoided by reading. I'm a pharmacy tech who works for walmart and several other pharmacies for years and I have never seen this med in this form... because of that the FIRST thing I would have done was read about it... mistake avoided
Long story short, this was more that a mistake, these were people who do not know how to do their job
ps... walmart pharmacy is a pharmacy, for all intents and purposes... but the best pharmacies are ones that are busy, and always have more that one pharmacist on duty - whamdanglers, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4Whether or not its what they're thinking, its the next natural step once he recovers. Our society has become so litigious that this travesty will eventually take the form of a high-dollar cash settlement.
Not to mention the comment below me effectively has the same message... Just placed more "sensitively." Well, I'm just not that sensitive. Stories like this hit Digg's homepage often, and there are plenty of stories that don't make it, yet are equally as horrific.
I feel for this kid, and would never want to be in his position. But that doesn't mean that they don't already have lawyers beating their door down. - koolaidkitten, on 07/16/2008, -1/+5Being on a respirator the rest of your life, being a vegtable, being disfigured, paralyzed from the neck down. I rather be dead that any of those.
- danomagnum, on 07/17/2008, -0/+4Yep, ***** Happens.
- Artifex, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4"The article is biased to the point of absurdity."
It's from the Consumerist. You're being redundant :) - jo0zi, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4"It could be worse, a woman could cut off your penis while you're sleeping and throw it out the window of a moving car"
-- Tyler Durden - LacY, on 07/16/2008, -0/+4I worked at an Eckerds (like CVS or Walgreens) and our pharmacists were largely useless, and made several errors (luckily none life-threatening, several were caught by the Pharm techs before dispensing them). Errors happen anywhere, not just at Wal-Mart. The sad part is how much $$ those Eckerds pharmacists were making...
- SkippyDoorknob, on 07/16/2008, -1/+4All medications have the possibility of dangerous side effects, including the medication you got as a replacement for the first one.
- inactive, on 07/16/2008, -1/+4I'm not surprised. Walmart doesn't have a reputation of hiring the brightest people.
- BOFH2, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3let me know how that next shoulder surgery goes without them. They "scrubbed" my should joint to get the labrum to adhere to it. Not near as bad as spinal headaches but pretty bad.
I am sure you were being sarcastic. - Tweekster, on 07/16/2008, -0/+3You don't really know a lot about pharmacists do you? they have a lot of leverage in their profession against the people that hire them.
Remember they can walk out at any second and the entire pharmacy is shut down for a substantial amount of time until they can lure a new one away from their lucrative job. - emalen, on 07/16/2008, -2/+5Are you people kidding me??? You think being disabled is WORSE than being DEAD??!! You need to have your eyes opened to the fact that there are many disabled persons who live incredibly fulfilling lives.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 239 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is