At least three children are in the hospital after taking the liquid form of a popular ADHD medication that was dispensed at a Kentucky pharmacy.
Tabitha Drew, whose 5-year-old daughter, Rayven, takes clonidine oral suspension, told WLKY that her daughter started feeling sick within ten minutes of taking the drug — and is now in the intensive care unit at a local hospital.
“She started rubbing her eyes, saying, ‘Mommy, I’m really sleepy,'” Drew told the new paper. “And by the time she had the tablet in her lap, she dropped it and she was just, completely, just lifeless.”
Rayven was rushed to Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville, where she remains.
Two other children were also hospitalized after ingesting the drug, WLKY said, prompting Henry County EMS to post an alert on its Facebook page.
Stock image of liquid medicine.
Alamy
“If your child has been prescribed clonidine oral suspension and it was filled at MedSave in Eminence, DO NOT give it to your child. We have reason to believe that something is wrong with their shipment. DO NOT USE,” the announcement reads.
They later updated their page, sharing that “The investigation has resulted in sufficient information to be certain that this incident is isolated from the clonidine oral suspension prescriptions that were filled at MedSave in Eminence. Thank you all for sharing this as much as you could.”
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Tabitha Drew, whose daughter is in intensive care after taking medication for ADHD.
wlky/youtube
Beth and Ian Burkett’s 21-month-old son, Henry, also took medication from the pharmacy, they told WDRB. They put him on a ventilator after a dose of medicine, which they said was filled at the Med Save pharmacy.
“It was definitely an overdose because he received Narcan on the way to the hospital,” Burkett said. “And then he actually received the maximum amount of Narcan in the emergency room that he was allowed to have.”
They told the paper that their son is at home, but that he has a “long way to go.”
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Drew remains with his daughter at Kentucky Children’s Hospital. As Drew told WLKY, “She’s woken up a few more times, but she’s hallucinating. She’s having nightmares.”
“Those moments only last 30 seconds to a minute, and she’s back,” Drew said. “This is the last thing I want, for another child to end up here.”
Clonidine can be compounded—that is, made into a liquid form—for children who have trouble taking pills.
However, regarding one case study of a 12-year-old who took compounded clonidine, the Journal of Emergency Medicine said, “this may increase the risk of dosing errors.”
That patient suffered from generalized sedation, bradycardia, and hypotension because “his drug concentration was approximately eight times that indicated on the label.”
PEOPLE reached out to Med Save, which said it had “no comment”.
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Source: HIS Education