ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 30, 1996 TAG: 9604010025
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-4 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS
SOURCE: Associated Press
Rite Aid Pharmacy and one of its former pharmacists agreed to pay $1.7 million to the family of an 8-year-old girl who died after being given the wrong prescription.
Megan McClave died in her sleep July 18, 1994, after ingesting two teaspoons of Roxanol. Pharmacist Kent Schafer of Newport News had supplied the Roxanol because he believed it to be a generic substitute for Demerol.
In June 1995, Megan's father, Mike McClave, sued Schafer and the pharmacist's employer, Rite Aid of Virginia Inc., for $6.35 million.
According to a settlement reached March 13, neither Rite Aid nor Schafer admitted liability or negligence.
The settlement states that all parties involved wanted ``to avoid the risks of an uncertain outcome and further emotional suffering'' that would occur if the case were brought to trial.
Neither McClave, nor Jeffrey R. DeCaro, the lawyer for Rite Aid and Schafer, returned telephone calls. Schafer could not be reached for comment, and Robert B. Halkowich, McClave's lawyer, declined comment.
The terms of the settlement prohibit everyone involved from commenting to the news media.
Court records show that Rite Aid and Schafer will pay Megan's parents, McClave of Hampton and Johnda L. Thompson of Baltimore, each $451,723.26. They also will pay Megan's sister, Bethany McClave, $50,861.62, which was placed in a trust in Newport News Circuit Court.
Part of the $1.7 million settlement will be given to Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. for an annuity that will provide annual payments of $20,000 to Bethany, 14. The payments will begin Sept. 11, 2000, and run through Sept. 11, 2005. A final sum of $106,613 will be payable Sept. 11, 2006.
Halkowich's firm, Spencer and Halkowich of Newport News, received $570,691.86, or a third of the settlement.
In July 1994, Schafer filled a prescription for Megan, who had just had a tonsillectomy. The prescription called for Demerol, a brand of painkiller drug called meperidine. Instead, Schafer filled the prescription with Roxanol, a brand of morphine.
Schafer, a pharmacist with more than 20 years' experience, dispensed the drug and told Megan's father that Roxanol was a generic form of Demerol.
Schafer told the Virginia Board of Pharmacy that he mistakenly thought the medications were interchangeable.
On July 17, as directed by the typed label on the prescription, McClave gave Megan two teaspoons of the painkiller. Megan died in her sleep early the next morning. The medical examiner's office in Norfolk ruled Megan died of ``morphine toxicity due to ingestion of Roxanol.''
The two-teaspoon dose contained about 200 milligrams of morphine - six to 20 times more than the typical adult dosage of morphine. The medical examiner said the drug slowly shut down Megan's respiratory system, and set off a chain of events that caused a blood clot to develop near her lungs.
Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney Howard Gwynn said he has yet to decide whether criminal charges are warranted. Gwynn said he plans to talk to Halkowich about the case next week.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB