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A dog owner in Arlington, Virginia is mourning the death of her 10-year-old service dog after a veterinarian prescribed one medication and a CVS pharmacy dispensed a different drug.
Daisy’s owner, Miroslava Mircheva, told News4 that the error is what she believes the reason for her dog’s untimely demise.
The dog, a 10-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel named Daisy, died a few weeks ago after the prescription mix-up.
Mircheva told News4, “It’s a preventable mistake, and nobody should go through the suffering I experienced.”
Daisy was Mircheva’s service dog. And Mircheva described her as “the most innocent, pure and loving dog”.
Mircheva said that the pooch was so important to her that when Daisy developed a heart condition, she flew her pet to London for heart surgery.
The heart surgery was successful and “she came back with completely healthy heart and very happy,” Mircheva said.
However, six-months post operative check-up, the veterinarian told Mircheva that Daisy developed a heart arrythmia but can be managed with medication.
So, the vet wrote a prescription for Daisy and Mircheva sent it directly to her local CVS.
After the first dose, Daisy “started experiencing symptoms the same day.” Mircheva said that the symptoms included “labored breathing, lethargy and excessive thirst.”
Mircheva revealed that the vet called him 10 or 15 minutes after she sent a photo of the pill bottle. She told WTOP, the vet “called CVS to let them know that the medication was wrong.”
According to Mircheva, the prescription for Daisy was amiodarone, which is used to treat heart arrhythmia.
However, the prescription bottle Mircheva got from CVS was a bottle of amlodipine, which is medicine for blood pressure.
Mircheva revealed to WTOP that she received a call from someone on CVS. She said he apologized but said that the prescriptions are difficult to read.
“Difficult to read is for somebody like me, that doesn’t know anything about medication. I’m not a physician or a pharmacist — we trust them for our health, and our family, and our dogs, as well,” Mircheva said.
She continued, “A statement like that from CVS, people that are responsible for health and well-being, to say that prescriptions are difficult to read, is unacceptable to me.”
Mircheva later revealed that CVS apologized to her but was not satisfied with their response.
She said, “CVS needs to make some changes, and implement some new procedures for accountability, so this never happens again.”
“Under Virginia law, she was property. But for me, she was family. And you don’t leave family behind.”
Darlene B
says:A better plan is for the vet to send the prescription directly to the pharmacy, by phone or fax. We all know how difficult it is to read the doc’s writing, they are notorious for it.