Pharmacy Mistakenly Gives Young Children Cancer Medication!

I have been asked before if a pharmacist can be liable for medical malpractice. While there are technicalities in the definition, essentially the answer is ABSOLUTELY! Generally, they will take the form of a personal injury lawsuit as opposed to medical malpractice, but that is basically the same concept with a different label.
A month or so ago I posted an article referring to a pharmacist that gave an elderly patient an EXPIRED drug which caused an adverse and very serious reaction for the patient. In another case, a pharmacist have been giving an elderly patient medication that not only was not her own, but actually DANGEROUS for elderly patients to have.
This most recent case that I am posting about comes just south of the border from us in New Jersey at a CVS Pharmacy in Chatham. Instead of giving children the fluoride tablets as prescribed by their doctor, pharmacists gave to as many as 50 families the breast-cancer treatment medication. There were reports have some of the children ingesting the cancer pills provided to them, but there have not been any immediate injuries reported yet.
The breast cancer medication, called Tamoxifen, is a very potent antagonist of estrogen receptors in breast tissue. Essentially, that means that Tamoxifen interferes with the activity of estrogen in the system to inhibit breast cancer cells, which require estrogen to develop, from getting that estrogen. Long-term ingestion of this drug for young children can be quite devastating actually and cause significant hormone imbalances.
Unfortunately, pharmacy medication errors are not as rare as you might thing—or hope!! They affect more than a million Americans each year and even kill up to 100,000 people each year!
But what do you think?! I welcome your phone call on my toll-free cell at 1-866-889-6882 or you can drop me an e-mail at jfisher@fishermalpracticelaw.com . You are always welcome to request my FREE book, The Seven Deadly Mistakes of Malpractice Victims, at the home page of my website at www.protectingpatientrights.com.