According to an article in this week’s Oregonian, a Washington woman has filed suit in Multnomah County against Fred Meyer for a serious mistake in filling her prescription. The lawsuit alleges that Anna Bell went to the Burlingame location of Freddy’s to pick up fertility pills. What she got instead was a powerful anti-depressant called Clomipramine, an older compound with a long list of adverse side effects.
Ms. Bell is seeking just over a half million dollars in damages, including past and future medical expenses, lost income, and life impact damages.
The error appears to flow from a similarity in spelling between clomipramine and the correct drug clomiphene, and comes on the heels of a 2012 survey of “chain” pharmacy employees which intimated that large retailers such as Fred Meyer have created a work environment inviting such problems.
