The Labor Day Knucklehead Award Marathon Part Thirteen

Our thirteenth winner today is Walgreens. They get the award for the following.

A Polk County jury Friday awarded $25.8 million to the family of a Lakeland woman who suffered a massive stroke and later died after a prescription was improperly filled.

Beth Hippley died earlier this year, her death blamed on an error made in 2002 when the 42-year-old mother of three was under a doctor's care for breast cancer.

Doctors gave her an 88 percent chance of surviving the cancer, prescribing chemotherapy and Warfarin, a blood-thinning medication. But while she was prescribed 1 milligram of the drug, the prescription was filled with a dosage 10 times stronger.

The jury found against Walgreens and pharmacist Elizabeth Partlow, deciding the prescription error caused a cerebral hemorrhage that resulted in permanent bodily injury, disability and physical pain.

As a result, Hippley was forced to stop chemotherapy treatments, resulting in her death.

"Beth Hippely died unnecessarily because this tenfold overdose with Warfarin by the pharmacy she trusted caused her cancer to come back with a vengeance and it interrupted all of her cancer treatments," said Chris Searcy of the South Florida law firm Searcy Denney Scarola Barnhart & Shipley.

According to court documents, a 19-year-old pharmacy technician with little training filled the prescription with the incorrect dosage. The pharmacist responsible for verifying the prescription was not made aware of the prescription error until three years later.

Warfarin is a very strong blood thinner. It needs to be closely monitored. I take it because of a pulmonary embolism I suffered in 2005. My doctor has me go for monthly bloodwork.

Even if the medication didn't cause Mrs. Hippley's death, the drug store was negligent for filling the medication incorrectly. That is all it takes to make Walgreens our thirteenth Knucklehead of the Day.

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