Dialysis patients are dependent upon a number of drugs to help ensure that their bodies stay healthy and functioning even though their kidneys do not work. Unfortunately, the very fact that dialysis patients are dependent upon drugs makes them vulnerable to many health risks.
Our Boston dialysis injury attorneys know that many people suffered cardiac events and were harmed as a result of dangerous dialysis drugs produced by Fresenius Medical Care. However, this is just one of many examples of dialysis patients who have been put at risk or who suffered harm as a result of the drugs that were administered to them. Only recently, for example, a pharmacist was found to be misbranding dialysis drugs and providing cheaper medications to patients.
Dialysis Drugs Misbranded
According to KSN.com, a pharmacist confessed to distributing misbranded dialysis drugs to patients. The pharmacist reported that he had substituted a Chinese-made drug for an FDA approved medication. The drug that the patients were supposed to receive was an iron sucrose drug that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved for dialysis patients.
Unfortunately, the pharmacist wanted to make some extra money and to earn a larger profit so the pharmacist decided not to give patients the drugs they needed. Instead, patients received the misbranded Chinese drug that had no FDA approval and that may very well have been a different drug, a placebo or a dangerous chemical substance.
Dialysis patients, especially, could be vulnerable to problems with dangerous medications since their bodies are unable to filter out waste on their own. A patient undergoing dialysis needs to take the recommended drug therapies as advised by a doctor in order to maintain strength and in order for the dialysis regimen to be effective in keeping the patient healthy.
Unfortunately, this means that administering the wrong medication to a dialysis patient could have devastating consequences. The pharmacist who was dishonest and who prevented people from getting the medications they need has thus committed a very dangerous and immoral act.
The pharmacist who distributed the mislabeled drug provided the medications to dialysis patients in Kansas, but this type of problem could happen anywhere and at any time. The pharmacist is facing criminal charges, will be required to pay around $849,000 in restitution, and will spend as long as 48 months in jail. He faces these penalties as he has been charged with distributing a misbranded drug as well as with healthcare fraud.
Hopefully, these penalties will be enough to deter others from providing mislabeled drugs to dialysis patients. Unfortunately, it seems that greed often gets the best of those who are in the healthcare business. This pharmacist was not the first to put the lives of dialysis patients at risk. When Fresenius failed to issue a widespread warning to patients or healthcare providers despite knowing that GranuFlo and NaturaLyte increased the risk of a cardiac event, the actions of Fresenius were every bit as egregious and dangerous as the actions of the pharmacist who provided the wrong drug to patients just to make a buck.
If you or a loved one suffered a dialysis injury in Massachusetts, call Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers for a free and confidential appointment — (617) 777-7777.
Additional Resources:
Drug Reps Rarely Share Side Effects With Doctors, Boston Personal Injury Attorney Blog, May 19, 2013.