$5-Million Suit Names 4 Firms Allegedly Tied to Drug Mix-Up

A lawsuit filed Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court seeks $5 million in damages from four firms allegedly involved in a prescription drug mix-up that left a Buena Park woman in a coma two months ago.

The complaint, filed by Patricia Ulcine, alleges negligence and product liability on the part of AmeriCare 1, the Delma Corp., Zenith Laboratories Inc. and Medical Mart Med Pak growing out of a mislabeling incident last January.

State health officials issued an alert after it was discovered that patients at AmeriCare 1 clinics in La Palma and Orange may have been given mislabeled drugs packaged by Medical Mart Med Pak of Costa Mesa.

According to state officials, the patients were given boxes of pills labeled “metronidazole 250 mg.,” a drug most frequently used by women to treat vaginal yeast infections.

Instead, the vials contained tolazamide, an anti-diabetic drug that can cause low blood sugar, coma and death when taken in dosages recommended for the anti-infection drug.

The mix-up was discovered when the Buena Park woman, who was never identified by health officials, was admitted in a coma to a hospital and the cause was traced to her medication. The woman later recovered.

Tuesday’s suit did not claim that Ulcine was the woman who was hospitalized. It only identified her as someone who had suffered “injury to her nervous system” after taking the mislabeled drugs.