A Colorado pharmacy has admitted to issuing an incorrect dosage of a boy’s ADHD medication, causing the wrongful death of 8-year-old Jake Steinbrecher.
According to The Denver Channel, Jake had been taking Clonadine to help curb his attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) for three years. Last Halloween, however, he took his usual dose and “immediately started having reactions to it,” his mother, Caroline Steinbrecher says. At the hospital, doctors discovered that he had brain swelling and tested his Clonadine pills. This is when they discovered that he had been given a much higher dose of the Clonadine than his prescription called for. In fact, he had been given 30 mg of Clonadine rather than his customary dose of .03 mg. This is 1,000 times the dose he should have been given.
When Jake’s symptoms eased, he was released from the hospital and life returned to normal. However, in early June, he began to show similar symptoms to those he exhibited when he was previously overdosed with Clonadine. He returned to the hospital, but this time he didn’t make it. Jake died on June 8, potentially from the overdose of Clonadine.
According to an attorney representing Jake’s family in this wrongful death and medical malpractice case, Good Day Pharmacy has admitted to “making a mistake in the dosage” given to Jake. Jake’s family, though, says that this is much more than a mistake. His mother says, “It wasn’t a mistake. It was a sentinel error.”
An autopsy is still underway, so at this time Jake’s true cause of death is unclear. Still, his mother believes the pharmacy’s mistake during the fall led to his death, and she is broken-hearted and furious. “How could somebody do that?” said Steinbrecher, “how there was no other way to make sure the medicine was mixed correctly before it was out the door other than the say-so of the pharmacist who made it?”
Even more shocking, an investigation by The Denver Channel with the Colorado Department of Regulatory Agencies shows that the pharmacist who erroneously filled Jake’s prescription is still licensed to practice in the state. Instead, Steinbrecher says she believes the woman still works at Good Day Pharmacy and there is no record of her even being disciplined. “She’s continued to work on at the pharmacy every day,” she said, “still has her license still is allowed to make other prescriptions for other children.”
Tragically, it is too late for Caroline Steinbrecher to save her son, Jake. She says, “We’ve lost our purpose,” but perhaps she now simply has a different purpose: to help prevent pharmaceutical errors like the one that ended her young son’s life. She has established a memorial fund in Jake’s honor to help children have access to his greatest passion—dance. Also, she hopes that by speaking out and sharing her unspeakable tragedy she may help to spread awareness of the dangers of pharmaceutical errors and show parents that they always need to double-check their children’s medications.
“People need to be aware of what is being given to their children,” she said, “they trust doctors and they trust pharmacists to do the right thing for them and to keep their children safe, but these are all just people and people make mistakes and errors and that’s where more protection needs to be in place.”
Sadly, there may no amount of consumer oversight which can prevent tragic medication errors like the one that killed Jake. Still, though there is no way to compensate for a person’s personal suffering or the loss of a beloved child, there may be a way for families affected by medication errors to hold all negligent parties accountable for their actions. If you have suffered or lost a loved one due to a prescription error or a medical mistake, an experienced personal injury lawyer may help you achieve a sense of justice. For more information, please contact us today for a free legal consultation.
