THE STROKE THAT SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN: The story of Ada's mom

The story of Ada's mom


Ada’s mother, a widow, had extremely high blood pressure. Her physician prescribed one of the newer medications, which did reduce Ada’s mom’s hypertension, but it was expensive.


The prescription was written for 30 tablets, with the directions to take one a day. Ada's mother lived on a very limited income. The cost of the medication meant that she often had to choose between buying food and filling her prescription.


She did not tellher physician, or her pharmacist that she could not afford this medication. To save money, Ada’s mom began taking her medicine every other day. Later it became every third day.When she wasn’t taking a pill every day, no one said anything. As a matter of fact, no one appeared to notice at all.


A few months after she began reducing the dosage of her medication for high blood pressure, Ada's mom had a stroke. It was relatively minor, but she was hospitalized for several days.



Did it have to happen?


Could anyone have intervened and prevented Ada’s mom from having a stroke? Maybe Ada, maybe the physician, and maybe the pharmacist .


The pharmacy code of ethics says, “A pharmacist promotes the good of every patient in a caring, compassionate, and confidential manner.”


The law of every state says, “The pharmacist shall perform a prospective drug review prior to dispensing any prescription.” It does not say, “prior to dispensing only a new prescription.”


What didn’t happen


The pharmacist at the pharmacy where Ada mom filled her prescription could have discovered that their patient was not seeking refills of her medication as prescribed. Each time the prescription was refilled that information was available.


Had the pharmacist noticed that the 30-day supply of medicine was lasting 60 days and later 90 days, they could have alerted her physician before the stroke and the injury occurred.


Pharmacists have the ability in their daily professional lives to make a real difference in the lives of their patients. Sometimes we have to be reminded of how we do that and how important it is.


Epilogue


After Ada's mom had the stroke, her prescription was changed to a less expensive, older blood-pressure prescription.


The new prescription of the older medication is working fine for Ada’s mom, just as well as the “newer and greater and more expensive” medication that she used to take — and sometimes did not take.