Mom says pharmacy gave toddler ear infection medication four times too strong

SALISBURY, N.C. — A Salisbury mother is searching for answers after she says a local Walgreens gave her ear infection medicine for her toddler that was four times stronger than it should have been.

We took that mother’s claims straight to the Walgreens corporate level, which responded with a statement Wednesday afternoon, which reads in part:

"Cases like this are rare and we take them very seriously. Our first concern is for the patient's well-being. We’re sorry this occurred and have apologized to the customer."

Robin Sells said she Is thankful her 17-month-old child is OK. But she wants to make sure what she says happened to her child doesn’t happen to others.

Sells said she noticed when she opened the bottle on Tuesday, that it looked different than past ear infection medication she had given her child.

“I opened the bottle and it looked funny,” she said. “But I didn’t really question it too much because coming from a pharmacy, it should be right. I gave him a dose of it and he freaked out.”

Sells said she rushed back to the Walgreens on Jake Alexander Boulevard to show the pharmacy staff the bottle of amoxicillin and clavulanic acid she had been given.

“When we got there, we opened it and they said it’s not supposed to be look like this,” Sells said, noting it had the consistency of Elmer’s Glue. “It was mixed wrong.”

Sells said she feels fortunate that the stronger medicine did not appear to cause any serious damage to her child.

“We trust these people and it should be correct, and there should be protocols that protect people,” Sells said.

This Walgreens store has no citations from the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy.

Walgreens management is still investigating what happened in this case. In general, the company says it has a multistep process with numerous safety checks to minimize human error.

Cox Media Group