A Ceres mother thought she was getting medication to treat her 5-year old's flu, but was instead given a heart medicine.
Now, doctors are running tests to see if the girl's heart was damaged.
Wilma O'Neil had a prescription filled for Tamiflu at a Walgreens store to help fight the H1N1 flu virus. The bottle was labeled as Tamiflu, but the liquid inside was a heart medication.
O'Neil said she was notified about the mistake by a call from the pharmacy.
"We've got a mistake, we don't know where this medicine is, but somebody has the wrong medicine, and we don't know who it is," O'Neil said.
The woman said about 20 minutes after she got that call, the pharmacy called back and confirmed that O'Neil had the wrong medicine. She was given Amiodarone, which is used to treat an irregular heartbeat.
O'Neil was told she should get her daughter to the hospital. A second electrocardiogram showed some irregularities.
"When they said it was heart medicine, my mind just raced with all types of ideas. … she could have a heart attack, something could happen where she could have a stroke," O'Neil said.
The child, Ellen, must see another heart specialist to determine if there was damage.
Walgreens said in a statement, "We're sorry this occurred and we apologized to the family. We have a multi-step prescription filling process with numerous safety checks in each step to reduce the chance of human error."
The insurance company for Walgreens has contacted the family, but it's unclear what bills they'll cover.
"There's the ambulance ride, the ER visit, two EKGs, that was the day we found out," O'Neil said. "The next day, there was another EKG, and now we're going to the heart specialist."
Now, doctors are running tests to see if the girl's heart was damaged.
Wilma O'Neil had a prescription filled for Tamiflu at a Walgreens store to help fight the H1N1 flu virus. The bottle was labeled as Tamiflu, but the liquid inside was a heart medication.
O'Neil said she was notified about the mistake by a call from the pharmacy.
"We've got a mistake, we don't know where this medicine is, but somebody has the wrong medicine, and we don't know who it is," O'Neil said.
The woman said about 20 minutes after she got that call, the pharmacy called back and confirmed that O'Neil had the wrong medicine. She was given Amiodarone, which is used to treat an irregular heartbeat.
O'Neil was told she should get her daughter to the hospital. A second electrocardiogram showed some irregularities.
"When they said it was heart medicine, my mind just raced with all types of ideas. … she could have a heart attack, something could happen where she could have a stroke," O'Neil said.
The child, Ellen, must see another heart specialist to determine if there was damage.
Walgreens said in a statement, "We're sorry this occurred and we apologized to the family. We have a multi-step prescription filling process with numerous safety checks in each step to reduce the chance of human error."
The insurance company for Walgreens has contacted the family, but it's unclear what bills they'll cover.
"There's the ambulance ride, the ER visit, two EKGs, that was the day we found out," O'Neil said. "The next day, there was another EKG, and now we're going to the heart specialist."
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