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CVS issues statement after Bossier mom given wrong prescription for son

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BOSSIER CITY, La. (KSLA) - A Bossier City mother is sounding the alarm about a prescription mix up at a local pharmacy.

Tarah Thomas is warning others to double check their new medicines after her 13-year-old son was given the wrong prescription. Now, CVS pharmacy is responding to the incident.

According to the Mayo Clinic, metoprolol is used to treat high blood pressure, and trazodone is used to treat depression. But now, Thomas is trying to figure out how her teenage son was prescribed these two medications after being diagnosed with COVID.

"He was supposed to have a cough medicine, antibiotic," said Thomas.

She is warning others to double check their meds after her 13-year-old son was given the wrong prescription.

Thomas says while she was at work, her husband went to the CVS pharmacy on Barksdale Boulevard at Jimmie Davis to pick up prescriptions for their son, but when it was time for another dose that night, Thomas' husband told her something didn't seem right.

"When I got home, he said time to give nighttime, he realized it was off. He said, 'Come and look at this this, sounds like a tranquilizer," Thomas said. "It said take for 90 days at nighttime and I googled it and I said why would ???

It was at that point the family realized they were given the wrong prescriptions.

The medication Thomas' 13-year-old was taking was actually for a 30-year-old man who suffers from high blood pressure and depression. The two happen to have similar first names, the same last name, and the same birth month and day. However, their addresses are different.

"It actually hit me the address was wrong before I realized the name was wrong," Thomas explained.

The mother reported the mix up to CVS's corporate office and filed a report with the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy.

"I would hope the pharmacy would do something to make sure it doesn't happen again. It seems like that they are understaffed," Thomas said.

CVS issued this statement:

"We apologized to Ms. Thomas when she notified us that her son received the wrong prescription. We encouraged her to consult her child's provider before giving him any additional medications and are looking into how this happened to help prevent a similar error in the future. The health and well-being of our patients is our number one priority, and we have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to support prescription accuracy. Prescription errors are a rare occurrence, but if one does happen, we use what we learn from it to continuously improve quality and patient safety."

"If they know they are understaffed and they have staffing issues, will they change that or is it an acceptable risk for them?" Thomas questioned.

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