Father Augustine Njuu, a Catholic priest, had been a long-time patient of Mercy Pharmacy Services and had a documented allergy to Lisinopril. According to the priest’s Missouri medical malpractice lawyer, “In 2022, Njuu’s primary care physician called in a refill order of a medication called Amlodipine. Mercy Pharmacy had violated numerous of its own policies, resulting in them providing Fr. Njuu with Lisinopril instead of Amlodipine. Fr. Njuu became extremely ill and was hospitalized for 4 days and 3 nights.”
The priest’s lawyer explained: “A couple of them were not following the policy that simply required them to actually look at the bottles before they placed them into the bag, before sending them to the patient. But the most important, and probably the biggest problem that was happening, is that the pharmacist responsible for verifying that the correct medication was indeed being given to the patient had developed what probably can be referred to as a bad habit of using the scanner in a certain way that allowed them to pretty much short circuit the computer system that would allow them to just move the medication down the line faster, without taking the steps that they were supposed to take.”
Mercy Pharmacy Services reportedly offered to settle for $39,011.16 in the fall of 2024, but later withdrew the settlement offer. After the priest’s medical malpractice lawyer offered to settle for $100,000 and Mercy Pharmacy Services declined to settle, a Missouri medical malpractice jury found Mercy Pharmacy Services 100% liable for the priest’s damages, and awarded the priest $300,000 (including past noneconomic damages in the amount of $200,000 and future noneconomic damages in the amount of $100,000), on April 2, 2025.
The priest’s lawyer stated after the verdict, “The client, who is a Catholic priest here in Missouri as well as in Tanzania, where he was born, certainly was not out to make money on this endeavor at all. He just wanted Mercy to make it right and they simply refused to do that. And so, by forcing him to go to trial, he now feels fully vindicated and we’re completely satisfied with the jury verdict coming back at more than 10 times whatever the final offer would have been.”
A research article published in 2017 in the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Community Medicine stated: “During the decade of the study there were 646 malpractice payments made against pharmacists and 2015 represents the fifth consecutive year of increase in the annual number of malpractice payments against pharmacists. Contrastingly, numbers of adverse actions against pharmacists has experienced the fifth consecutive year of reduction. Hence, malpractice payments are trending upward while adverse actions against pharmacists are trending downward. Conclusion: Although the pharmacy profession implements multiple processes to protect patients from medication errors the number of malpractice payments against them continues to rise.”
If you or a loved one may have been injured due to pharmacy negligence in Missouri or in another U.S. state, you should promptly consult with a Missouri medical malpractice attorney (or a medical malpractice attorney in your state) who may investigate your pharmacy malpractice claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a pharmacy negligence case, if appropriate.
Visit our website to be connected with Missouri medical malpractice lawyers, or medical malpractice lawyers in your state, who may assist you with your pharmacy mistake claim, or call us toll free at 800-295-3959.
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