A woman who claimed she suffered post-traumatic stress syndrome after she found out three prescribed injections she received from a pharmacy were “already used " has been awarded over €39,000 by the High Court.
Recovering after giving birth, Lisa McGuire was injected with what should have been prescribed anti-clotting medicine when she and her husband realised the vial was empty and two others in the box were the same.
She told the court she had to get a new box of injections from the pharmacy and when she later talked to the supervising pharmacist, he had no explanation and told her there was nothing she needed to do.
Days later she said she got a high temperature and went to hospital where she said she was told she should have had blood tests and had missed the 72-hour window where injections can be given to protect against Hepatitis B.
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She told the court she had to wait two months before she was assured she had not contracted Hepatitis B and could not breastfeed her newborn baby.
Ms McGuire (43), of Legan Rock, Carrickboy, Co Longford, brought a pharmaceutical negligence claim against Declan Tully, the then supervising pharmacist at Tully’s Pharmacy, Main Street, Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, and the pharmacy operator, Edgeworthstown Pharmacy Ltd, with a registered address at Edgeworthstown, Co Longford, over the 2017 incident.
It was claimed that two other injections in the four-injection box appeared used and/or empty and had their seals broken.
It was claimed there was a failure to deliver the standard of care Ms McGuire was legitimately and reasonably entitled to expect and that she suffered emotionally and psychologically since the incident.
At the outset of the case, Ms Maguire’s counsel, Jonathon Kilfeather SC, told the court that judgment was previously granted by the court against the two defendants and the case returned for assessment of damages only.
In evidence, Ms McGuire said she felt she could not breastfeed or bond with her child after the incident.
“I was on edge with the memory of what happened. It was hanging over me. It was on my mind. I felt let down,” she said.
Making the award, Mr Justice Paul Coffey said this occurred at the worst possible time for Ms McGuire when she had just given birth. This should have been a special time with her newborn baby and it was fundamentally interrupted, he said.
After two months, he said, Ms McGuire was reassured there was no risk in relation to Hepatitis B but she had post-traumatic stress syndrome and began to relive the trauma of what occurred.