Whistleblower 9: Mom Gave Daughter Wrong Dosage After Pharmacy Made Mistake

CHARLOTTE, N.C.,None — A Charlotte mother called Whistleblower 9 and said a serious mistake by a local pharmacy made her daughter sick.

When 9-year-old Shelby Alicea got a bad ear infection in January, her doctor prescribed the antibiotic amoxicillin. Her mother, Melissa Fink, had the prescription filled at a Rite Aid on Idlewild Road and Harris Boulevard in east Charlotte.

"It clearly says on the directions, 7.5 teaspoons twice a day for 10 days," she said, pointing out the instructions on the bottle.

But she says after two and half days of giving her daughter the indicated dosage, her daughter's condition actually got worse. She started vomiting and had diahhrea.

"My belly was hurting. I had belly cramps," Shelby said. ‘

And the bottle was almost empty.

"I realized I was running out of medicine and I called the doctor. They said, ‘Did you spill it?' I said, ‘No, she took it all,'" Fink said. "They said, ‘You need to bring her in immediately.'"

The doctor has prescribed 7 milliliters twice a day, but the pharmacy worker instructed Fink to give Shelby 7.5 teaspoons. That's about 37 milliliters, over 5 times the dosage the doctor called for.

"She could have killed my baby. Thank god it was amoxicillin. If it was something stronger – what if my baby went to sleep and never woke up again?" Fink said.

A spokesperson for Rite Aid acknowledged the mistake, but would not say wither the worker responsible would be punished. She did say the company was making changes because of the mistake.

"We immediately investigated and took the appropriate actions including having our local team visit the store and retrain our pharmacy staff," the spokesperson said. "We wanted to make sure they are following our quality assurance training procedures."

Anna Dulaney with the Carolinas Poison Center said an amoxicillin overdose can be very serious.

"We can run into dehydration. We can run into kidney failure," she said.

Thankfully, Shelby's overdose was not enough to cause lasting damage.

The North Carolina Board of Pharmacy regulates 2,500 licensed pharmacies in the state. Since 2006, the board has received 448 complaints similar to Fink's. Since 2003, they took disciplinary actions against 146 pharmacies for making mistakes or violating board rules.

CVS tops the list with 27 disciplinary actions in that time.

Dulaney said it's a sobering reminder to ask questions at the pharmacy.

Fink said she now uses a different pharmacy but will be double checking from now one.

To track pharmacies, click here.

WSOC