‘I wouldn’t let her give medication to a mouse,’ woman says of pharmacist who made fatal error
A Nova Scotia woman is haunted knowing her father’s life could have been saved by some simple instructions from a pharmacist.
Darrell Gibbons was 58 years old when he died in his sleep at his Amherst home in December 2015.
He’d died of a methodone overdose because a pharmacist failed to warn his family that his dosage needed to be adjusted.
“I don’t know that we’re coping that well,” said Monica Gibbons, one of Darrell’s daughters.
“We still haven’t been able to spread my dad’s ashes because we just can’t. We can’t let go.”
Darrell Gibbons with his son and his daughter Monica. (Monica Gibbons)
Monica Gibbons, a licensed practical nurse who is studying to be a registered nurse, said her father had been using methadone for about 15 years to deal with a drug addiction.
He was admitted to hospital in 2015 because of complications from alcohol abuse. While he was there, he was prescribed a drug called naltrexone to help him deal with his alcohol problem. He also continued with his methadone treatment.
Gibbons said her father’s condition improved considerably during his stay in hospital and he was released to live with her sister.
‘You’ll be fine without it’
When her father left the hospital, Gibbons said the pharmacy told his family the naltrexone wasn’t covered by his drug plan. The pharmacist, Leanne Forbes, told the family it was no problem.
“She said, ‘You’ll be fine without it.’ That’s what she told my sister,” said Gibbons.
But he wasn’t fine.
30-day suspension
Because Forbes failed to warn the family that cutting off naltrexone would require a decrease in Darrell Gibbons’s methadone dosage, the adjustment was never made and he died of an overdose.
“What would have been safe is either keeping him on both drugs or taking away a large amount of the dose of methadone that he was receiving,” said Monica Gibbons.
The Nova Scotia College of Pharmacists suspended Forbes’s licence for a month, fined her and ordered her to write an essay and apologize to Gibbons’s family.
His daughter — who said she has not yet received the apology — doesn’t feel the 30-day suspension is enough.
“I don’t think that that pharmacist is going to learn anything from it,” said Gibbons. “I wouldn’t let her give medication to a mouse if I had one.”
‘I hope that I can save somebody else’s life’
Forbes is one of two Nova Scotia pharmacy managers who were suspended after making prescription drug dispensing mistakes in unrelated cases that ultimately led to the deaths of two patients.
Gibbons said the family tried to hire a lawyer to consider a lawsuit against Forbes. She said she was told lawyers weren’t interested in the case because her father’s life didn’t have much value.
“Who’s to say my dad’s life isn’t valuable enough?” she asked. “I’m the one who has to get married without my dad walking me down the aisle, I’m the one whose children are never going to meet their grampy over this mistake.”
Gibbons said she decided to speak out after the release of the disciplinary decision because she wanted to warn others.
“I really just don’t want my dad’s death to have no purpose,” she said. “I hope that I can save somebody else’s life.”
Filed under: General Problems
[…] lawyers weren’t interested in the case because her father’s life didn’t have much value. […]
You are right. I have no problems getting ultram for my old dog along with Xanax for his anxiety when we have a bad storm. But if this happened in the USA nothing would have happened to the pharmacist at all. They would have just come up with because of his past drinking his body could not deal with the change or some other cappy excuse like that. It is sad when some lawyer tells you that a loved one has no valued but my guess his alcoholism and his past health would have made the case hard to win.
My heart goes out to the family. The really sad part is that if the pharmacist made that kind of mistake in treating an animal the animal rights activists would be all over it like stink on shit! Animals have more value these days than humans! 🙁
You are 100% correct, Connie! If a pet owner or veterinarian was allowing their pet(s) to physically suffer the way so many Americans are forced to suffer, our society would be up in arms over the neglect and abuse (rightly so). I just don’t understand how so many of those same people can’t apply that same compassion to humans. (This is coming from a huge animal lover. It just pisses me off to no end!)