Doctor made a mistake

[bandmom]

My daughter had an appointment yesterday with an epileptologist she hasn't seen for a couple years, but wants to go back to. We discussed with him the next medication option for her, and decided to try Onfi. Today the pharmacy called to say her prescription for "Abilify" won't be ready until tomorrow. I said we never discussed taking Abilify (is that even used for seizures?), it was supposed to be Onfi, so she cancelled the prescription and I called the doctor to see what was going on. The notes from the visit gave instructions for her to start Onfi; the prescription that went to the pharmacy was for Abilify. The doctor's secretary was very surprised he would make that mistake, and she apologized.

Has this ever happened to anyone else? I know mistakes happen, but this strikes me as a pretty serious mistake for a doctor to make.

 

[AlohaBird]

I've seen Abilify advertised as a supplementary anti-depressant if yours isn't working as well as you would like. I haven't heard of it having any value for seizures.

And yes, mistakes do happen but, yikes, that is a very scary one. It's good that you were on the ball and remembered what was said in the MD office. Many people don't have someone like you to look after them. Your daughter is lucky.

 

[Cint]

Abilify is an anti-psychotic medication used for bi-polar disorder and severe depression. I'm very surprised the neuro wrote a prescription for this med instead of Onfi. I sure would love to call and quiz the neuro myself and ask him what he was thinking. He needs to be reprimanded, IMO.

I've taken a different anti-psychotic med for bi-polar disorder and ended up with Type 1 Diabetes. A lot of the new anti-psychotic meds can/do cause diabetes, so it's great you are on top of things. Always beware of meds.

 

[bandmom]

Thanks, I wasn't sure exactly what Abilify was for but it did sound familiar from the ads on tv. Not familiar, however, as something used for epilepsy.

The secretary apologized as if she was expecting me to be really mad but I wasn't. If I don't say any more about it I'm curious to see if he would bring it up at her next visit.

It was an electronically sent prescription and I have no idea how those work, but maybe there are codes for different drugs or something and it was a simple typo? Still, no excuse for making a mistake. Even if the pharmacy hadn't called about the delay I'm sure I would've noticed the mistake on the label when we picked it up. But someone else might not have. Definitely proves you need to pay attention to your medication.

 

[Nakamova]

That's a huge mistake, with potentially terrible consequences. I would be spitting mad. But the mistake might have been made by someone other than the neurologist -- One of the places I used to go, they had the office staff send in the prescriptions. Either way, you should definitely let them know what happened so it doesn't happen again.

 

[lindsayschu2]

That's terrible--I'm not massively shocked though. I've had doctors prescribe antibiotics many times in the pennicilin family (I'm allergic) even after I reminded them in the appointment or antibiotics that shouldn't be taken by people with uncontrolled epilepsy--and I've had neuros prescribe drugs for sleep etc that make seizures worse. I had a very bad neuro for a while. I'm glad you caught it!!! And one thing that really helps is having a great pharmacist that cross checks things and looking everything up yourself before taking anything.

 

[Fedup]

bandmom

That is a big mistake to make, if it was me I would look into it. Like Nakamova said "That's a huge mistake, with potentially terrible consequences."

 

[AlohaBird]

I would be spitting mad. Either way, you should definitely let them know what happened so it doesn't happen again.

What Nak said.
This is not a case of no harm no foul. You need to make sure that the next person (who might not be as alert as you) doesn't get a potentially harmful or even lethal medication handed to them.