South Carolina Pharmacists Make Disturbing Discovery, Prompting Call to Police: ‘There’s a Lot of Gaps in Our Health Care System’
A South Carolina pharmacist found herself caught in the middle of a heated debate after sharing a strange event that occurred inside her pharmacy involving a former customer. It started as a normal day when a man called in requesting to refill his wife’s prescriptions.
Nothing unusual here, that is, until one of the techs mentioned that they were pretty sure that the spouse in question was deceased. It would likely have gone unnoticed on any other day, and, in fact, it had a few times. So, with a little investigating, the situation became very strange, and the pharmacists had to take drastic measures for many reasons.
Local Man Calls In Refills For His Dead Wife To South Carolina Pharmacy
TikTok creator known as DavisFamilyJourney shared her encounter, but didn’t quite expect the drama that would quickly unfold within her comment section. She begins her post saying that she had to call the cops while she was at work. The South Carolina woman says she was working when she took a call from a man calling in to refill his wife’s prescriptions.
However, as she was taking down the information, she said one of her techs told her that she was pretty sure that the wife in this situation was deceased. So they began looking into it before she called the husband back. Within minutes, the death was confirmed with an obituary.
The details in the obituary all matched. Name, date of birth. It even matched the caller’s name as the surviving husband. Needless to say, the South Carolina pharmacist called the man back and told him there was an issue with the refill. She told him that they have a note on file that the wife was deceased. That is when things became even weirder.
So he then asks if it would be okay if his wife could come and pick up the medication. This comes as a shock to the pharmacist, and she asked, “So she is not deceased?” Next, the man questioned if she could come and pick it up if she has an ID. The pharmacist then replied, “Send her up here with her ID.”
Fed Up Pharmacist Has Enough And Calls Cops
After the strange interaction with the widowed husband, the pharmacy employees had enough, describing the situation as disgusting and gross. But it doesn’t end there. They look a little deeper and find that the husband had refilled the controlled substance prescriptions a couple of times since her death. Something that the pharmacy hadn’t caught until now.
A little deeper search reveals records show the husband had allegedly picked up his wife’s prescriptions for what she believes was some form of personal use. So she reported the incident to the local police. However, the reaction from her social media followers became heated.
The Internet Has Some Opinions
Of course, the TikToker was surprised and alarmed by the varying comments that began blowing up her comment section. Despite her explanations of right and wrong, not to mention the legalities, she definitely opened a can of worms with this topic.
“The amount of people in your comments thinking that you should have given the guy unprescribed medication to help him cope with his wife’s death is alarming,” one commenter defended her.
“People are just disgusted with her lack of empathy considering the field she’s in,” another writes.
“Crazy insurance didn’t shut it down either. Usually knows immediately, just like the banks do.”
The South Carolina pharmacist replied, “Well, in this case, nobody notified us. And no doctors cancelled their scripts. All you need to pick up somebody’s scripts is their name and DOB. If it’s a control you also need your ID in SC. It gets scanned into the system. There’s a lot of gaps in our health care system.”
“Bro lost his life partner. Him taking some of her medicines in order to find some comfort isn’t the worst possible thing that could be going on,” one more chimes in.
What Are The Laws Regarding Prescriptions For Deceased Family Members
According to Justia.com, following the death of a loved one, the handling of their leftover prescription medication and refills is supposed to be handled in the following ways. Regarding controlled substances for deceased hospice patients, all medications are to be transferred to the hospice program for immediate disposal.
For non-hospice patients, by law, all medications and pending refills are to be turned over to law enforcement officials or the drug take-back programs for disposal. South Carolina Legislature CHAPTER 43 of the South Carolina Pharmacy Practice Act states that normally any family member or friends with the proper information can pick up prescriptions for a living patient.
However, after death, pharmacists are bound by professional and clinical judgment and cannot knowingly dispense a refill for a deceased. Pharmacies do not always receive automatic, real-time electronic notifications when a patient passes away. It can sometimes take several days to weeks before receiving the information from the proper channels.
It is advised that a family member reach out to the drugstore to alert them of the death to avoid situations such as this.
Joann covers high-profile industry features, investigative entertainment stories, and long-form trending media profiles. She has 15 years of experience in the online news vertical.
