‘Blind woman died after driver delivered the wrong medicine’
TRAGEDY AS WOMAN HAD SIMILAR NAME LIVING ON SAME STREET
A BLIND grandma died after a pharmacy delivery man mistakenly gave her morphine intended for a neighbour with almost the same name, an inquest heard.
Christina Ann Fletcher, 58, took an overdose of the drug after it was accidentally delivered to her home.
The tablets were meant for Ann Fletcher, a patient at the same chemist who lived just four doors away on King Street, Heywood.
The delivery driver didn’t ask Christina Fletcher to confirm her name and address or to sign for her prescription.
Christina, who suffered from an hereditary condition which left her virtually blind, was found dead at her home on August 12 last year.
An inquest in Heywood on Tuesday heard that the former nurse was also being treated for a number of other illnesses including epilepsy, depression and anxiety and was taking various prescription drugs including anti-epileptic treatment pregabalin.
But eight days before her death, morphine intended for her neighbour Ann Fletcher, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, was wrongly delivered to her by the Internet Pharmacy, on Manchester Road, Heywood.
Staff at the chemist only realised their mistake more than a week later when Ann Fletcher’s daughter called on August 12 to say her mum had not received her medication. Throughout the afternoon and into the evening, staff made repeated attempts to contact Christina Fletcher, called her father and tried to contact her son Ian, who was on holiday, before calling police. Officers entered the terraced house and found Christina Fletcher’s body. Nine 50mg tablets of morphine were missing from the pack which had been delivered to her. Andrew Watkins, who worked as a part-time delivery driver for the Internet Pharmacy, told the inquest he ‘delivered the wrong prescription by mistake.’ He added: “I do not know how it came about. I must have been way off somewhere else, I wasn’t concentrating, that’s for sure.” Mr Watkins said the usual procedure was to ask Christina Fletcher to sign for her medication to confirm she had received it. But, Mr Watkins added, sometimes Mrs Fletcher, due to her failing sight, was unable to sign or needed help signing. On August 4, Mr Watkins said he didn’t ask her to sign for her prescription, instead he gave her the ‘top sheet of the delivery book’ to ‘save her the trouble.’ Mr Watkins also said he was unaware of the pharmacy’s ‘standard operating procedure,’ which was to ask patients to confirm their name and address when taking delivery of a prescription.
Sajad Issop, who at the time of Mrs Fletcher’s death was working as a locum pharmacist at the Internet Pharmacy, said ‘controlled drugs’ such as morphine, were kept in a special cupboard in the pharmacy and prescriptions of such drugs were checked by three people before being sent out for delivery.
When asked by the coroner Lisa Hashmi if the pharmacy had a ‘red flag’ system for warning staff when two patients shared similar names and addresses, Mr Issop said it did not.
Home office pathologist Dr Charles Wilson said Mrs Fletcher had taken a ‘high dose of morphine.’ She was also suffering from ‘acute pneumonia’ and Dr Wilson said fairly high levels of pregabalin were found in her system.
He gave the cause of death as ‘pneumonia due to opiate and pregabalin toxicity.’ Christina Fletcher’s son Ian, who is being represented by solicitors Slater and Gordon, described his mum as an ‘extremely loving’ person who was ‘devoted’ to her children and grandchildren. Proceeding
I do not know how it came about. I wasn’t concentrating that’s for sure Delivery driver Andrew Watkins