Walgreens ordered to pay $21 million over drug mix-up
Submitted by Boney on August 18, 2004 - 17:38.
Walgreens ordered to pay 21 million dollars
over drug mix-up
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Chicago (AFP) - A US pharmacy chain has been
ordered to pay 21 million dollars in damages
to the family of a brain-damaged girl who
was mistakenly given the wrong drugs by one
of its stores.
A jury in Cook County, Illinois, on Tuesday
ordered the Walgreen Company to pay the
compensatory damages to the family of
Alexandra Gehrke. The six-year-old was born
premature and cannot walk or feed herself,
and can barely communicate, the Chicago
Tribune newspaper said Wednesday.
At trial, the pharmacy argued that her
inuries stemmed from her premature birth in
July 1998, but Gehrke's parents blamed it on
the drug mix-up.
Gehrke's mother told the Tribune that she
had to rush her baby to the emergency room
five times in two months after a Walgreens
pharmacy in Elgin, northwest Illinois, filled
a prescription with the adult diabetes
medication.
Glipizide, instead of the anti-seizure
medication.
