The Tobago Regional Health Authority has been ordered to compensate a mental outpatient after she was prescribed the wrong medication.
Justice Carol Gobin sitting in the Tobago High Court on Tuesday ordered the Authority to pay compensation for negligence to Mona Beache.
The court, however, has not yet assessed the sum to be awarded to the patient.
The evidence led was that Beache was an out-patient of the Scarborough Health Centre, Psychiatric Department, at the Scarborough General Hospital.
Four years ago on February 27, Beache went to the hospital’s Health Centre Unit dispensary where she filled the description for Lamictal also called Lamotrigine and Clonazepam.
She followed the instructions on how to take the medication.
However, less than a month after taking the medication she began suffering stroke-like symptoms and seizures.
It was discovered that she had been taking Leponex Lamictal, also called Lamotrigine, the wrong pills to treat schizophrenia.
Beache had already taken about 18 pills. Beache’s attorney Kalana Prince-Wilson wrote a pre-action protocol letter to the regional authority but they refused to settle the matter. Her attorney subsequently filed the lawsuit in 2015. Attorney Ken Wright represented the Authority.