A CHILD AGED 15 months was overdosed for days with a sedation drug due to a pharmacist’s wrongful dispensing of a prescription, Judge James O’Donoghue was told in the Circuit Civil Court today.

Barrister John Nolan said the child had been prescribed doses of 2.5 mg by a hospital doctor following a surgical procedure and the dispensing chemist had marked the bottle 2.6 mls twice a day which the unsuspecting parents then administered to their child.

Judge O’Donoghue approved a settlement offer from Ballyfermot Pharmacy Limited of €20,000 compensation for damages to Maisy Jane Murphy, who will be aged five in the middle of June next.

Nolan, who appeared with Elaine Hickey of Tracey Solicitors, said Maisy Jane’s parents, Aidan and Shauna Murphy, of Wellview Avenue, Mulhuddart, Blanchardstown, Dublin, had to wean their child off the drug under medical supervision. 

Mr Murphy, in an affidavit, told Judge O’Donoghue that in August 2018 when Maisy Jane was a year and three months old, she had been admitted to the Children’s Hospital, Crumlin, for a surgical procedure.

“Following discharge from the hospital a prescription was given to her mother Shauna by medical staff at the hospital prescribing Diazepam 2.5 mg,” Mr Murphy stated. “He said that at the pharmacy, his wife had been provided with a bottle containing Diazepam and marked with a label bearing the instructions 6.25 mls to be taken twice daily.

One milligram is approximately equal to 0.001 of a millilitre in a weight to liquid comparison.

Nolan told the court this represented a wrongful dispensing of the prescription and Mr and Mrs Murphy believed that when giving the medication to their daughter they had been complying with the instructions and had done so until the 100 mil bottle was empty.

“Not only was there an overdosing of the child but on cessation of the medication she began to suffer severe withdrawal symptoms. The child was being over sedated,” Nolan told Judge O’Donoghue.

He said Maisy Jane had been readmitted to Crumlin Hospital in mid-September with a history of severe irritability following discontinuation of Diazepam which she had been given for up to six weeks and had to be placed on weaning doses of the drug which had taken almost two months before the child had returned to normal.

He said Mr and Mrs Murphy had gone through an extremely difficult period with their child not understanding why she had been behaving the way she had or that the instructions had involved excessive sedation followed by significant withdrawal symptoms. Mrs Murphy had suffered a severe psychological reaction.

Judge O’Donoghue, who was told by Nolan that as a matter of certainty liability would be established, approved the pharmacy’s €20,000 offer with Circuit Court costs and said counsel had succeeded in negotiating a very good settlement.