A 14-year-old girl tragically died from a nut allergy after a pharmacist allegedly refused to give her life-saving Epipen.
Emma Sloan had an anaphylactic shock after she accidentally ate a sauce with nuts at a Chinese restaurant.
She and her mother Caroline rushed to Hamilton Long Alicare Pharmacy for an adrenaline injector. However, she allegedly declined as she didn’t have any prescription.
Caroline had sued pharmacist David Murphy and the pharmacy after her daughter passed away.
In the affidavit to the court, the grieving mother said that she and Emma, along with her two sisters and aunt, went to a Chinese restaurant and had a buffet-style dinner.
But Emma accidentally “consumed a nut sauce by mistake called satay.”
The teen immediately suffered an anaphylactic reaction and her mother rushed to Hamilton Long Allcare Pharmacy for an Epipen.
A charge of poor professional performance was struck out against Mr. Murphy.
It had been alleged that he failed to act adequately when he declined to give Caroline an autoinjector as she didn’t have a prescription for Emma.
The mother’s counsel Gordon Walsh BL told the High Court the €50,000 settlement was without an admission of liability.
One person commented: “Why go to a Chinese buffet with a severe nut allergy!! Why didn’t they call an ambulance? It doesn’t add up.”
Another wrote: “Pharmacist cannot diagnose Anaphylactic Shock, If she had a peanut allergy they would have known that a Satay was Peanut based. Should have taken the kid to Hospital.”
A third said: “50k pounds is a very tiny sum. Here in the USA, refusing a lifesaving medicine in a moment of obvious crisis, would get you at least a million. It’s not like people run around injecting themselves with Epipens for fun. A pharmacist is highly trained, and as a specialized doctor, he should have erred on the side of caution and administered the shot.
“People second guessing the choice of going to a chemist, or blaming the parent about not having an epipen at all times, are being far too kind.point 226 |
If someone was drowning, would you throw them a life preserver? or quote them regulations on how they should have a personal floatation device on them already, as they go down blub blub blub…” the commenter added.point 185 | 1
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