A Colorado woman is severely distraught now that she has realized a Safeway pharmacy accidentally gave her a drug used in abortions instead of an antibiotic she needed.
Mareena Silva is six weeks pregnant and she didn’t think the drug she would be picking up at her local pharmacy would cause problems for her and her unborn child. The pharmacist gave Silva a drug known as methotrexate that is used to treat cancer patients but is also used in the dangerous RU 486 abortion drug intended to take the lives of unborn children.
“I took it because I thought it was mine,” Silva told ABC News in Denver. “I came back and I looked at the bottle and it wasn’t my name.”
After taking the drug, Silva said she began to feel ill and then she discovered the pharmacy had given her a drug with another patient’s name on the label. The drug was intended for an older woman who has the same last name and a similar first name.
After taking the pill, Silva went to the hospital where emergency medical staff gave her charcoal in an effort to absorb the drug and limit any damage to the baby.
“My doctor immediately told me to try and make myself vomit to see if I could get the medicine to come back up,” she told the television station.
“This is my first child, so it’s really difficult to deal with,” Silva said. “For all this to happen now is really overwhelming. To know that I have to come home and sit and wait.”
Safeway released a statement responding to the mix-up and admitted the pharmacist’s error.
“Safeway’s first concern is the health of our patients,” the statement read. “When the pharmacist became aware of what happened, he worked with the patient and with her physicians to minimize any possible health consequences to the patient and her unborn child. We have extended our sincere apologies to the customer, and offered to pay any medical expenses incurred as a result of a prescription error.”
“Safeway has pharmacy systems and processes in place to prevent this kind of occurrence,” the statement continued. “We have a well-earned reputation for reliably and safely filling prescriptions, and we will continue to work diligently to ensure our procedures and policies are being followed at each of our pharmacies.”
But Silva is reportedly not satisfied.
“Sorry is not going to cut it,” Silva told ABC. “I’m going to have to deal with this for a long time. My baby could have deformities. There’s a lot that goes with it,.”
Doctors are monitoring Silva and her unborn baby to see what effects, if any, the drug will have on the child.
The abortion drug RU 486 has been responsible for killing millions of unborn children but it has also killed dozens of women worldwide, including a half dozen in the United States alone. As of 2006, according to the FDA, more than 1,100 women were injured by the drug — requiring hospitalizations, blood transfusions and emergency surgeries.
