A pharmacist at the Yuba City Wal-Mart store mislabeled a pill bottle, resulting in a woman taking twice too much blood pressure medication and nearly dying, according to a $1.2 million lawsuit.
After collapsing on a bus, victim Geraldine Schamanski’s heart stopped five times in 24 hours.
Besides Wal-Mart, the pharmacist and Asereth Medical Services are named as defendants. The latter company apparently supplied the pharmacist who mislabeled the bottle.
Aside from a blood pressure problem, Schamanski was in “very good” health for a woman in her 70s before the pill mix-up. But if she had died from the overdose, the death probably would have been attributed to old age.
According to the lawsuit, Schamanski was taking two generic medications in early 2008 — nadolol, which is a beta blocker, and furosemide, a diuretic. The pharmacist gave Schamanski a pill bottle labeled furosemide that actually contained nadolol, causing her to take 80mg per day of nadolol instead of 40mg.
Schamanski collapsed after taking the double dose for at least six weeks.
Schamanski’s Yuba City doctor quickly diagnosed the problem after looking at her medications and said the overdose “easily could have caused” the heart and lung problems that caused her collapse, according to the lawsuit.
Schamanski now has permanent heart damage and can no longer engage in her favorite pastime — taking a bus to area casinos to play bingo. The near-death experience has left both her and her husband, a disabled veteran, with anxiety.
If you or a family member has been injured because of the fault of someone else; by negligence, personal injury, slip and fall, car accident, medical malpractice, trucking accident, drunk driving, bad product, toxic injury etc then please contact the Fort Worth Texas Medical Malpractice Attorney Dr. Shezad Malik. For a no obligation, free case analysis, please call 817-255-4001 or Contact Me Online.