State records revealed that the Royal Palm Specialty Pharmacy of Webster mistakenly gave a boy a thyroid medication that was 1,000 stronger than the required dose. This medical negligence resulted to serious heart complications to the patient.
The state board found out about the incident four months later after the boy was rushed to the emergency room due to heart attack. The mother filed immediately filed a formal complaint when the doctors told her which had caused the complication to his son. Apparently, the pharmacy did not declare any medical error on their end during the time they gave the medication to the patient.
The board members of the Mass. Board of Registration in Pharmacy initially voted to close the Royal Palm but the decision was reversed when it decided to negotiate and file a settlement.
The board allowed the pharmacy to continue its operation with some restrictions. It also promised to do proactive plans to ensure that such errors will not happen again.
The records were obtained by the Globe show.
“This speaks to a systemic problem” with state regulators, said Sarah Sellers, a former Food and Drug Administration official, in an interview with the Boston Globe. “The states are not doing enough to identify the problems, figure out the scope of the problems, and correct the problems.”
Critics are now targeting the state pharmacy board as compounding pharmacy seems to be not a priority to them. An outbreak of fungal meningitis that killed 61 people and had made 749 sick in 20 states were said to be an error of a pharmacy based in Framingham. The issue was an error on the formulation of an injection. The said pharmacy voluntarily surrendered its license.
The state board clarified that they were not ignoring the error of the Royal Palm stating that they were still investigating the issue. They are also pursuing a disciplinary action for the meantime against the pharmacy.
