LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Timika Thomas does not come from a large family. So, as an adult, she decided to make one and had four lovely, healthy children. She and her husband, in 2019, decided to have one more.
Progressing into her thirties, Thomas was having trouble getting pregnant. She had two ectopic pregnancies, which led to Thomas having her fallopian tubes removed. And even though they weren’t insured for the costs they would endure, they decided to pay for invitro fertilization – IVF.
Doctors sedated Thomas, inserted two eggs inside her body and sent her home with prescriptions, one of which would trick her body into producing enough hormones to kickstart her pregnancy.
“You have to make yourself think it’s pregnant,” Thomas told the 8 News Now Investigators. “We’re taking a lot of supplements to make our bodies think it’s pregnant.”
In previous attempts, Thomas had taken a shot to her buttocks in order to trigger that hormone inside of her, but injecting herself was emotionally trying and she wanted to give her “butt cheek a rest,” she said.
Her doctor prescribed a vaginal suppository in place of the injections. Thomas went to her CVS branch at W. Craig Road and Camino Al Norte in North Las Vegas. She took two of her required doses and knew something was wrong.
“I started cramping really bad,” Thomas said.
No stranger to the IVF process, she expected cramping, but this was not the pain she anticipated.
“My cramping went beyond that,” she said. “It was extreme. It was painful.”
Thomas checked the bottle, looked up the name of the prescription on the label, and the results of her internet search began a yearslong process of mourning.
“The first thing I read is it’s used for abortions,” Thomas said.
Documents obtained by the 8 News Now Investigators outline how two technicians and two pharmacists made a series of errors that led to Thomas being given the wrong medication, which essentially terminated her budding pregnancy on the spot.
“They just killed my baby,” she said to herself at the time. “Both my babies, because I transferred two embryos.”
Among the series of mistakes, those documents say one technician – incorrectly believing she knew the generic name for the brand prescribed by the doctor – entered the wrong name into the prescription. One pharmacist did not catch the error, and another pharmacist failed to counsel Thomas when she came to pick up her medication.
“It [the error] would have been caught because then they would have had to have the medicine in their hand,” Thomas said. “And they would have said, ‘Oh, this is Misoprostol or Cytotek, have you taken this before?’ And I would have said ‘no.’ ”
Thomas lodged a complaint with the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy, which met in September. After she gave heartbreaking testimony about her horrifying experience, the two pharmacists were fined and had their licenses suspended provisionally. If both pharmacists avoid disciplinary action over the next 12 months, pay fines and take continuing education credits, their licenses will be reinstated, according to pharmacy board documents.
CVS, in response to inquiries from the 8 News Now Investigators, provided the following statement:
“We’ve apologized to our patient for the prescription incident that occurred in 2019 and have cooperated with the Nevada Board of Pharmacy in this matter. The health and well-being of our patients is our number one priority and we have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to support prescription safety. Prescription errors are very rare, but if one does occur, we take steps to learn from it in order to continuously improve quality and patient safety.”
The pharmacy board fined CVS the maximum amount allowed by statute — $10,000.00 – for its vicarious liability of the pharmacists’ errors.
At the hearing, the attorney for the retail behemoth distanced his client from its one-time employees.
“To suspend or take action against a pharmacy license when they really didn’t do anything wrong [it] wasn’t pled they did anything wrong,” the attorney said prior to the board imposing the fine. “The only allegation is that they had these pharmacists.”
Thomas was insulted.
“I felt like that was not okay because he should have took initiative for the company as a whole.”
Both pharmacists apologized.
“It’s a human error,” one pharmacist testified, in between heaving sobs. “It was just a human error and I’m so sorry.”
But sorry barely softens any of the heartache or sorrow Thomas feels even some four years later.
“All I got was a sorry,” she said. “It will never be good enough.”
I hope a lot of chain Pharmacists read the comment from the attorney representing CVS before the NV Board of Pharmacy. The chains don’t have their back. In reality, most/all chains have something in their policies & procedures manuals that all employee must follow/obey any/all Fed/State laws, rules & regulations. The fact that Rx dept staff makes a Rx mis-fill , which is a violation of the State’s Pharmacy Practice Act and thus the chain can claim that the employee(s) violated the chain’s policies & procedures… thus the chain has no responsibility – financial liability for the employees’ actions.
While the attorney representing CVS at the NVBOP meeting .. did not state the employees violated the chain’s policies and procedures…but… The pharmacy board fined CVS the maximum amount allowed by statute — $10,000.00 – for its vicarious liability of the pharmacists’ errors.
At the hearing, the attorney for the retail behemoth distanced his client from its one-time employees.
“To suspend or take action against a pharmacy license when they really didn’t do anything wrong [it] wasn’t pled they did anything wrong,” the attorney said prior to the board imposing the fine. “The only allegation is that they had these pharmacists.”
I hope that all chain Pharmacists, understand that they really need to personally have their own professional liability insurance, because the chains really don’t have their back and will use situations – such as this – they will try to dodge any lawsuits over the damages caused by their employees in the Rx dept.
Filed under: General Problems
Medical error HAVE DOUBLED since 2015,,,,from approx,,450,000 to 900,0000,, in 2022 ,,, since ,,jmo,,psychiatry is now forcible combined w/the medically ill,,,specifically us,,chronic physical pain patients due to a medical condition,,,,Never forcible combine mental
with medical ,,,ever again in all adults,,jmo,,maryw
FWIW, I was given someone else’s Rx several months ago AND I had issues with a generic med that I’d been on for years. Then the next refill of the same brand, same med made me quite ill. This happened with four different generic brands. I reported all through Medwatch, spoke with the FDA on the phone four or five times (I received a call from the FDA branch in Puerto Rico but the female rep didn’t know why she called. It was bizarre. I asked her if she would send me an email stating that she called me just for reference purposes and she blatantly refused ). I spoke with all the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers in question and Camber even emailed me a COA of the batch in question however, they left out five ingredients. When I confronted them about that they shut up and wouldn’t respond again. I spoke with Endo’s generic division, Par Pharmaceuticals, on the phone in Portugal and they wanted me to send them ALL the meds. I refused and that was that. I spoke with a LOT of people trying to get these meds analyzed but nope. The FDA was quite uninterested. I now have a $10,000,000.00 claim filed against Endo/Par through their bankruptcy filing. I don’t expect to get a penny but maybe I’ll get these meds analyzed as my claim was accepted and I was issued a claim number so ‘I’m standing in line with my ticket’. I won’t hold my breath for any satisfaction at all. I’ve found others that had the same issue with one of the med’s brands, KVK. What a huge mess our meds are in!
This is horrific! All THREE PHARMACISTS had one job. All of them f—-d up. The doc should have been called before “guessing” at the name of the drug. The pharmacist is REQUIRED to ask the pt if they have ever taken this RX and if they have any questions. Of course she would have questions and it would be crystal clear that the pharmacy made a huge mistake. If one of the 3 did their ONE job right, this would have never happened!
I’m deeply saddened by what happened to this woman. Sorry will never be enough. From what I gather, the 3 year statute of limitations is up, so suing, though much needed in this case, is not going to happen. At a minimum, Walgreens should have paid for the IVF costs associated with this baby cycle, plus suffering.
I use Walgreens for most of my meds, even “controlled meds”. I get hassled for trying to refill a few days early out of convenience, lest THEY BE OUT OF STOCK! They don’t get that you cannot limit a pt to not ordering their RX until the day it’s due because the damn pharmacy doesn’t seem to be able to keep proper inventory in stock.
ALSO, what I’ve seen: I’ll be at Walgreens, waiting and waiting to pick up an RX I had to remind them was due, and the pharmacist is running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Counting pills, running the drive through, checking the pdmp, GIVING SHOTS, having to swipe their id card for EVERY RX that is rung up, answering the phone, and even running the CASH REGISTER! And being forced to waste his/her precious time, asking would you like to donate to whatever charity is in the spotlight. What in the hell is wrong with this company?? I see exactly why pharmacists want to walk out. I’ve seen it to where a busy Walgreens has a single employee in the pharmacy – the pharmacist!!! How can he be expected to do it all? I write this from a perspective of a patient who has easy prescriptions, except for “the controlled” ones, waiting tirelessly, while these pharmacists and techs are beaten to the ground.
The only reason I don’t switch completely over to my mom & pop pharmacy – they all know me, ask how I’m doing, etc. is because of their hours. I do not have to remind them when an RX is due. I magically get a text saying my medication (controlled and there is a “mysterious shortage” of it nationwide – thank you very much DEA) is ready, I run down to pick it up, no waiting and BAM, I’m out of there. They are on top of everything. Unlike Walgreens, that has to pull out a MANUAL pen & paper log to track all controlled substances. Seems a bit behind the times, ya think? So much for PDMP databases being current to the minute!
Sorry for the book, but I feel very strongly about how that woman was wronged and that nothing can be done about it. Sorry doesn’t cover the IVF cost they just destroyed by failing to make ONE DAMN PHONE CALL!
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Frankly, I cannot fathom that any licensed health professional actually believe that their employer have THEIR backs and think that in any court of law they’re protected from being sued. Of course an employer is insured to cover their backs…and health pros with a license always will risk being victim of a suit. Wise health pros buy their own insurance policies.
I wonder if this patient is suiing the pharmacist, pharmacy tech.
I picked up somewhere along the article/video that the 3-yr statute of limitations was up. 3 years is way too short, in my opinion.
Maybe that is why the board of pharmacy took OVER THREE YEARS to come to a conclusion ?