About CVS Hurts: A Mom Using Her Voice

As I’m writing this blog I’m thankful that I live in such a democratic age where the Internet allows me to communicate with the world.

Companies can no longer hide behind the fact that serious complaints will stay in the outermost edges of the consumer world; we all have an equal voice and can use our influence to make sure we’re heard.

CVS Pharmacy is a rapidly expanding business that before January of 2007, I never paid much attention to. One fateful day, a day I decided to fill a prescription at the aforementioned pharmacy, my life changed forever.

My family went through a terrible ordeal when CVS Pharmacy issued us the wrong dosage instrument resulting in an overdose of medicine for my toddler who was 7 months old at the time.

After days of vomiting and being sick in every way imaginable, the only explanation was a voicemail from the pharmacy manager citing problems with the store as the cause of the grave mistake.

In light of recent revelations concerning over the counter cold medicine, I’m still shocked as I write this 10 months later at how flippant businesses that hold our children’s health in their hands are. Does it all just come down to dollars and cents?

I’m enraged because to this day I do not feel that CVS has owned up to what they did to my child. My infant lost over a pound, was convulsing, and I spent hours in the emergency room trying to sort through the mess. All I got was a voicemail from the store manager mumbling about how there was some sort of mix up.

My pediatrician who was contacted early on when my baby became sick even told me that he never recommends that patients use CVS. He referred me to a smaller pharmacy which I use to this day.

CVS is expanding at an alarming rate. They are popping up all over southern California and every time I see one my mom radar goes off and I start fuming. When businesses expand faster than they can ensure quality control, especially in the medicinal industry, sad things like babies getting sick are bound to happen.

Well I’m boycotting CVS Pharmacy until they apologize and convince me that they give a damn about kids. Liability or not, when a mistake like this is made, this crazy mother is NOT going to forget about it anytime soon. Every time I look at my daughter I wonder what long term effects the medicine will had on her developing body. It’s impossible to know. So I wait.

After doing some research, I’ve learned that CVS has a history of botched prescriptions causing sickness and even death. This has not stopped them from continuing to expand at a rate at which quality control can keep up.

I’ve felt like a victim for the past few months and have now decided that in order to heal I need to make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. If my trauma can save someone else and show a company that they need to educate and inspire their staff to care, my life will be better.

I will be blogging every day as a testament to January 7, 2007.

~ by cvshurts on October 24, 2007.