I am writing this blog post today because I was in a horrifying scenario last night.
I have a chronic pain condition and sometimes due to my condition I get these attacks when my laryngeal muscles start collapsing. I have difficulty speaking and breathing and I have collapsed twice due to not getting my medicine on time.
Due to this, I have the medicine in all my bags, incase of emergency.
Last night, I went out of my house to get some milk and I forgot to carry my bag. And my luck , I started with an attack. Luckily i had my friend along and he immediately took me to the closest pharmacy to get the medicine. I live in HSR layout, Bangalore and this pharmacy is MedPlus, Sector-7, HSR. It’s the closest to my house and i frequently buy medicines from there. The MedPlus pharmacy guy denied me the medicine. I needed Tab. Clonotril 0.5 mg, one tablet. They told me and my friend that we don’t have the medicine. By then my throat was collapsing badly, I was gasping for air and I was not able to speak. Tears were rolling down my eyes with every gush of air I got with a cough. I tried telling my friend to ask them for any muscle relaxant, If not clonotril then baclofen . But the pharmacy person just kept on denying the medicine and asked us to leave. I had my prescriptions in my phone even.
Rather than wasting time, my friend quickly took me to my house so that I could have the medicine. It took me 2 hours to gain my speech back and i got fine.
I later on went to the MedPlus pharmacy asking them if they have the medicine or not.I asked them to show me the medicine directory log, over which the pharmacy guy brought the medicine from inside, threw it on the counter and asked me to leave. I asked them, why did they not provide me with the medicine at the time of emergency and they kept on ignoring me. As if, I was invisible and continued doing there work. I then started shouting and asking them why and the person responded , “We are giving you the medicine now , just leave”. The other pharmacy guy had a smirk on his face and was making fun of my scenario. The third guy who denied the medicine, pretended as if I was not standing there. He later spoke that they don’t provide medicine without prescription. For which I told them I have all the prescriptions scanned in my phone. They never asked for the prescription earlier that day at the time of the emergency. They just wanted me to leave.
The MedPlus pharmacy guys started ignoring me again and I had to leave from there without an answer. I called the MedPlus customer care and complained about the scenario and they told me that they will get back to me as soon as possible. But, they did not.
If this could happen to me, this can happen to anyone in an emergency. I am still stuck somewhere inside with the fear, what if my house was not near by. What could have happened. The fear that I ll be ill treated in that pharmacy. The question, “What if somebody else like me would be denied the medicine by this pharmacy, what will happen to them?’
This scenario is scary and dangerous. As a chronic pain sufferer, I strive for life everyday, managing the pain and trying to live my life. But, if I ll be denied my medicine like this how will I manage.
This MedPlus pharmacy situation is dangerous for anyone in an emergency scenario. If they will deny medicine to a chronically ill person, why are they running a pharmacy.
I want that all the people around should be made aware of it and something should be done against it.
If you understand my concern and you don’t want any of your friends or family to ever face a situation like this, then kindly repost and let other people read it.
I still hope MedPlus pharmacy people will gain some conscious and realise there mistake and take some action.
– The girl who was denied the medicine.
That is so scary. I am so sorry you were forced to go through that awful scenario when they usually provide medications when you need them.
Here in the US, a pharmacist would be more likely to call an ambulance than use just one pill to help someone in front of them having a terrible episode. If you try to fill only one day early, we can get into trouble.
People with chronic pain are treated with such disregard it seems. And if they do call an ambulance there would be no guarantee the doctors or ambulance workers would have mercy on us and give us medication either!
Thank you for sharing your story. I’m so sorry to know this is going on around the world.
It actually sucks. Well, I ll consider calling an ambulance better than not getting any medicine. But the funny part is by the time an ambulance will reach here in India. God knows, if the person will still be alive.
So no further comments. Everybody is just trying to play some part in the play, at the end.