After given wrong dosage of antibiotics twice by the pharmacists from 2 private hospitals recently, my advise to everyone is that it’s best to double check with your paed after you have received the meds from the pharmacy in the hospital.

First incident – a very well-known private hospital in Ipoh
My paed told me that my baby has to be given 1.2ml of antibiotics once a day.  I was supposed to be given antibiotics enough for 1 month. After receiving the antibiotics from the pharmacist, I double checked the print-out info on the sticker on the bottle of meds. The instruction on the bottle of antibiotics said that the bottle of meds is to be discarded 7 days after reconstitution. However, I was only given 1 bottle and was told to finish the entire bottle, enough to last my baby for 1 month!  The print out stated that the dosage is 1.5ml.  There were 2 gross errors here.  First, the bottle of meds has to be discarded after 7 days and I wasn’t informed.  I was told to feed my baby with the antibiotics for 1 month!  Second, instead of stating a dosage of1.2ml on the print-out sticker for the bottle, it was printed as 1.5ml.  Good thing I am so hands on in handling my baby’s meds, if I were inexperienced, I would have fed her the wrong dosage and fed her the antibiotics which would have gone bad after 7 days.  My baby could have been seriously ill resulting from the hospital’s negligence.

Second incident – a private hospital in KL
That happened yesterday. Over the phone, my paed told me that my baby has to take 2ml of antibiotics. My hubby then went to the hospital pharmacy to collect the meds. When I checked the bottle of meds later, I was shocked to see that the dosage was printed as 3.75ml on the sticker stuck to the bottle of antibiotics. I then called my paed to reconfirm the dosage, which he told me was only 2ml. Good grief, that’s a real gross negligence and if I were a blur sotong mummy who trusts the hospital 100%, my baby would have been given almost double dosage of medication!

After these 2 incidences, I no longer trust any hospital.  I thought my baby would be in safer hands in an expensive private hospital, but I was so wrong.  I think I will call my paed to reconfirm the dosage of the medication and to double check the shelf-life of the medication from now onwards, just to be doubly sure.  When it comes to medication for my baby, I just can’t afford to go wrong.