LOMBARD, Ill. (MCT) — A Lombard family's 11-year-old dog was accidentally given the wrong prescription. The dog did not survive and the person accused of making that deadly mistake is a pharmacist.
A catastrophic mix-up of medication is rare but it happened to Lori Moretti's boxer, Mugsy.
43-year-old Lori Moretti's tight bond with Mugsy began when she rescued him from starvation 10 years ago. But in late June that bond was broken in what Moretti describes as a slow agonizing death of her dog.
A pharmacist working a Lombard CVS incorrectly filled Mugsy's prescription.
What the pharmacist should have given Mugsy was his regular medication, Aminophylline, a bronchial inhibitor for his enlarged heart. However on June 12th , Moretti says the pharmacist accidentally filled a prescription for Amitriptyline, an anti-depressant.
While Lori Moretti believes the wrong medication contributed to her dog's death, an independent veterinarian WGNTV spoke with says the correlation isn't clear. Mugsy wasn't in perfect health.
However what is clear is Mugsy was given the wrong medication and he took if for nearly 6 weeks.
Still unaware Mugsy was given the wrong medication Moretti refilled Mugsy's prescription, this time, the meds were correct. But something terrible happened within 90 minutes of taking the pills.
"He started breathing heavy and started swelling up over the next four hours," says Lori. "It was water retention."
That was the start of her four day nightmare.
On Monday, July 25th, Moretti rushed Mugsy to her veterinarian.
In his notes that day Dr. Kumar confirmed he knew Mugsy was given the wrong medication. Unable to correct the problem Dr. Kumar sent them to VCA Aurora, an emergency acute care facility.
The next morning, he went into cardiac arrest and died, leaving Moretti devastated and demanding answers.
She believes Mugsy died from an overdose of serotonin which is found in the drug filled incorrectly by the pharmacist. CVS executives admit to the prescription mix-up. They sent WGNTV a letter which reads in part: " The mistake was not caught during our quality assurance process. We have extended our sincere apologies to the Moretti family and in August we offered to compensate them for veterinary and other expenses."
For Moretti the compensation isn't enough. She's considering legal action against CVS as well as with VCA who she says ignored her calls to treat Mugsy for serotonin overdose until it was too late.
Moretti says she asked VCA Aurora to conduct a necropsy to determine exactly what caused Mugsy's death. However, she says, they cremated her dog before it could be done.
Websites like Drugs.com and rxlist.com can help users identified pills. You can enter the imprint code on your prescription pills and make sure the name of the medication matches with the code and color of the pills.