DENVER--A pregnant woman in Colorado who was mistakenly given an abortion pill by a drugstore pharmacist now must suffer an agonizing wait before finding out if her unborn child will survive.
Mareena Silva, who is six weeks pregnant with her first child, said a pharmacist at a Safeway in Fort Lupton last week accidentally gave her the drug methotrexate, which is used in chemotherapy treatments and can terminate pregnancies, Denver"s KMGH-TV reported.
Thinking it was her prescribed antibiotic, Silva took the pill. Shortly thereafter, she began to feel sick and checked the label on the bottle.
When she realized she"d been given the wrong pills, she called her doctor, who told her to try to vomit the medicine back up.
Soon after, she was rushed to the hospital, where doctors gave her charcoal to try to absorb the drug, she said.
But the treatment may not have worked. Doctors said she could have a miscarriage or give birth to a baby with severe defects.
They also said she could have a healthy child.
"For all this to happen now, it's really overwhelming to know that I have to come home and sit and wait," Silva told the station.
Safeway admitted the mistake and said the abortion drug was intended for a 59-year-old woman who has the same last name and a similar first name as Silva.
"We have extended our sincere apologies to Ms. Silva and offered to pay any medical expenses incurred as a result of the prescription error," Safeway said in a statement. "We understand the anxiety this has caused and the difficulty of Ms. Silva's situation."
Silva told KMGH-TV that the apology didn't matter.
"Sorry is not going to cut it. I'm going to have to deal with this a long time," she said.
Posted By: Siebra Muhammad
Thursday, February 10th 2011 at 3:23PM
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