Caroline Steinbrecher has used the same pharmacy for years to fill her family’s prescriptions, never having any issue until a new pharmacist was hired on staff. She didn’t think much about the new pharmacy employee until she picked up her young son’s medicine and made a disturbing find after it was too late.
Steinbrecher said her 8-year-old son, Jake Steinbrecher, has relied on the same medication, Clonidine, to control his hyperactivity for three years. He’s always had a great experience with it, never suffering any side effects until Halloween of 2015. What the mother would soon be told was a “mistake” turned out to be anything but that, and her nightmare would come to a terrifying end on June 8 when her son passed away.
According to Inside Edition, Steinbrecher has been a regular at Good Day Pharmacy in Loveland, Colorado, which has always filled Jake’s prescription of Clonidine without issue. Not thinking anything of it, she picked up the medication and gave it to him that day, as she always does, but this time, it resulted in a horrific reaction.
Right after taking what she assumed was his regular dose, it became clear something wasn’t right. The mother rushed him to the hospital where doctors found that his brain was swelling in reaction to the drug. Having never experienced this in the three years before now, Steinbrecher was told that he had taken 1,000 times the dose he was supposed to have ingested. This was because the pharmacist mixed the medication incorrectly, which is also used to treat high blood pressure, and although it looked the same, Jake actually took 30 mg instead of his usual .03 mg tests showed.
“It wasn’t a mistake, it was a sentinel error,” Steinbrecher said. Although he was eventually released from the hospital, Jake was back at the start of June, suffering consequences of the initial issue. After several days of hospitalization, Jake died and could not be revived, having allegedly suffered “sudden death by an autoimmune response believed to have been triggered by the pharmacist’s error,” a press release by the family stated.
Although the pharmacy admitted to the dosage mistake, the responsible pharmacist is still licensed to practice, and Jake’s mother believes she still works at the same pharmacy and has not been disciplined since Jake’s death and her alleged connection to it.
“She still has her license and is allowed to make other prescriptions for other children,” Steinbrecher said. In addition to no recourse for the pharmacist, the pharmacy itself has also gone unpunished, while the family suffers the ultimate consequences of their actions.
The Steinbrechers decided that despite it being difficult to share this horrific story while still in mourning, they felt it was important to warn other parents to be diligent about their child’s prescriptions and know you can’t always trust who you think you can.
It’s absolutely unacceptable that the business and pharmacist are still in practice, with Jake’s blood on their hands, hoping nobody will notice. A mistake doesn’t result in 1,000 times the dose — that happens when someone isn’t doing a job they’re capable of and they’re putting people’s health at incredible risk.
