Friday 22 February 2008

AND SO IT GOES ON...


My daughter, who is 34 weeks pregnant, collected a prescription for Gaviscon on Tuesday for dreadful heartburn. Later that night, with acid burning her throat and searing her chest, she took a swig from the bottle that, with great foresight, she had left by the bed. An hour later she awoke with griping stomach cramps and spent the rest of the night on the loo.

The next morning, out of curiosity, she looked at the newly prescribed bottle and was shocked to see a small, very faint label that bore the legend "opened on November 29th 2007" - what's more there was far more missing from the bottle than she remembered taking overnight.

With a sick feeling in her gut, she realised that the bottle of Gaviscon had been opened for over three months and that somebody else had also used it. Had they also 'necked' it from the bottle as she had? Yuk, it doesn't bear thinking about.

Okay, so she should have checked the seal but when stomach acid is coming down your nose in the middle of night, things like that aren't at the forefront of your mind.

Needless to say, she returned to the pharmacy to complain but the pharmacist didn't seem to understand the seriousness of the situation. Any bowel contraction at this gestation of pregnancy can initiate labour - not really what we want at 34 weeks. The consequences of sharing saliva with the previous imbiber of the Gaviscon don't bear thinking about; the area in which she lives has a very high incidence of HIV.

I've insisted that she complains to the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and I have written a very strongly worded letter to the managing director of the national chain that owns the pharmacy. But this event just highlights how vigilant we all must be - do check that seal before you take your medication.