I felt really disturbed after reading about the case of a 20-month old baby boy who was given double dosage of meds by the pharmacist of a private hospital here in KL in yesterday’s newspapers. The pharmacist not only prescribed double dosage of fever meds to the toddler, but also double dosage of antibiotics and lozenges! The dosage was meant for an adult. When the boy turned pale, sweated profusely and cried incessantly, his mother called the hospital and the nurse there admitted that the dosage given was wrong!!
Reading this reminded me that 1.5 years ago, Baby too was given the wrong dosage of prophylaxis antibiotics (for the prevention of UTI) by the pharmacist in a supposedly ‘five star’ hospital chain. The hospital is in Ipoh. I had brought Baby back to Ipoh to my parents during the long school holidays in 2008. Fortunately, I was a ‘pro’ in antibiotics dosage after having administered them to Baby since she was 7 weeks old. When I queried the pharmacist, he appeared confused and then I insisted that he called the doctor to reconfirm the dosage. It was then that he realized his mistake. What if I am a newbie mother who doesn’t know anything about antibiotics dosage? My baby would have suffered at the expense of the pharmacist’s carelessness.
So my advice to all mothers is to always double check your child’s meds dosage with the doctor after the pharmacist has given you the meds. Just spend a few minutes to ask the doctor and your child’s life could be saved. Don’t worry about troubling your doctor. I’m just speaking from experience.
I cannot believe my eyes when i read that news. How can people who work in the health industry can be so careless and irresponsible. We really must be extra careful.
As always, it is BUYER BEWARE!! You pay so much to see the doctor, I would have no qualms whatsoever to ask for more info. Unfortunately, the “techs” at pharmacies are not well-trained and are just giving out the meds, not knowing what is the correct dosage or not. That said, there are TRAINED pharm techs out there, but doubt they exist in KL. Good info u have posted.
Good sharing and thanks for the reminder.
i usually read the attached slip frm the manufacturer and double confirm the dosage against as prescribed by the doctor.