Mother says pharmacists killed son by prescribing toxic dose of ADHD medication

Monday, June 27, 2016 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: ADHD drugs, death, children''s health

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(NaturalNews) It's a shame to see so many kids put on horrific ADHD drugs that cause physical and psychological drug dependence. It's not just the drug itself that's damaging; it's the whole warped philosophy used to justify the drugging of children who won't pay attention or sit still.

Kids today are told to sit still and pay attention for hours on end in constraining educational environments that squeeze the life right out their curious and imaginative minds. If they get out of line too many times, drugs are used to mold them into the obedient slave the system is training them to be.

But this story isn't about the wide scale over-drugging of today's school children. This story is about a child prescribed too large a dose, so large, that his brain started swelling. The child was given so much ADHD medication in one dose, that he experienced a violent reaction that ultimately took his life.

Boy given 1000 times the recommended dose, brain swells, leading to his death seven months later

"He immediately started having reactions to it," said the boy's mom, Caroline Steinbrecher, speaking to Denver ABC-affiliate KMGH. Her son Jake was being treated for hyperactivity with the high blood pressure and ADHD drug, Clonidine. When they took him to the hospital, the doctors said his brain was swelling horrendously.

They investigated the prescription Jake was given. When the tests came back, they found out that the pharmacists had mixed 1000 times the prescribed dosage. Jake's usual dose was .03 mg. The pharmacist handed him 30 mg. That's about three years worth of the drug, given in one dose!
"It wasn't a mistake," said the boy's mom, "it was sentinel [medical] error."

The Good Day Pharmacy in Loveland, Colorado did admit they prescribed 1000 times the proper dosage. The pharmacist's error had caused Jake permanent brain damage. Just seven months after he recovered from the brain swelling, Jake was suddenly hospitalized again, with an autoimmune response. This time, he was unable to recover from the reaction and the young boy passed away June 8, 2016.

"We've lost our purpose," a tear-stricken Steinbrecher said. She alleges that the pharmacist's mistake ultimately caused her son's death.

"How could somebody do that?" said Steinbrecher, "how there was no other way to make sure the medicine was mixed correctly before it was out the door other than the say-so of the pharmacist who made it?"

After investigating the Colorado Dept of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) database, they found out that the pharmacist who made the mistake still had her license to practice. Steinbrecher believes the pharmacist still works at the Good Day Pharmacy in Loveland.

"She's continued to work on at the pharmacy every day," she said, "still has her license still is allowed to make other prescriptions for other children."

"People need to be aware of what is being given to their children," she said, "they trust doctors and they trust pharmacists to do the right thing for them and to keep their children safe, but these are all just people and people make mistakes and errors and that's where more protection needs to be in place."

"We want him to be remembered as a vibrant, talented dancer," she said, "whose life was taken away by a pharmaceutical error."

The family issued a press release after their son's death: "Jake and his family suffered dearly during his initial hospitalization, but the family was unprepared for the long term consequences which included his sudden death by an autoimmune response believed to have been triggered by the error."

A memorial fund has been set up in honor of Jake to help other children have access to dance lessons and to raise awareness of medical error and the need for pharmacy and pharmaceutical control.

Sources include:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com
http://theantimedia.org/mother-pharmacist-caused-overdose-adhd/