THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, October 10, 1995              TAG: 9510100245
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                            LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines

SUIT LINKS WOMAN'S DEATH TO PHARMACY ERROR DAUGHTER SAYS REVCO PUT WRONG DOSAGE ON THYROID MEDICINE AND MOM TOOK TOO MUCH.

A 63-year-old widow with a thyroid condition died after a pharmacy told her to take four times as much medicine as prescribed, according to a lawsuit recently filed in Circuit Court.

The lawsuit, filed by the widow's daughter, seeks $5 million in damages from Revco. It says the Revco at Southern Shopping Center was negligent in filling the prescription.

``I believe it was an honest mistake,'' said Joyce S. Hawkins, whose mother, Florence H. Smith of Norfolk, died in November 1993. ``I don't believe it was done intentionally.''

Revco's corporate spokesman in Ohio said he could not comment while the lawsuit is pending. The store manager at Southern Shopping Center also declined to comment.

The lawsuit was filed Sept. 27 by Hawkins' attorney, Larry W. Shelton. So far, Revco has not replied.

Smith, who lived on Easy Street in Miller Heights, was a retired domestic with hyperthyroidism. She had been taking the drug Levoxine for a year and a half, her daughter said.

But when Smith had the prescription refilled at Revco in September 1993, the lawsuit says, the bottle was labeled wrong. The label told Smith to take the medicine four times a day, instead of once daily as prescribed, the lawsuit says.

``She didn't question the instructions,'' Shelton said. ``She'd always followed the instructions on the bottle.''

Smith took the medicine for two weeks, until Revco caught the mistake, Hawkins said. The doctor then told Smith to stop taking the drug, and so she did, the lawsuit states.

Seventeen days later, on Oct. 30, 1993, Smith suffered a heart attack. She died a week after that, on Nov. 6.

Shelton said the heart attack was caused either directly by the drug overdose, or by the thyroid condition after Smith stopped taking the drug on her doctor's orders.

``It's a fairly potent medication that can cause a heart attack,'' Shelton said. ``A delayed reaction is not uncommon.''

Revco has three weeks from the day it receives the lawsuit to file an answer.

KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT by CNB