Walgreens Pays $31.3M after Pharmacist Mistake Causes Wrongful Death

Many pharmacies will argue that a pharmacist never makes a mistake on purpose. However, if they engage in behavior that compromises their work ability, they are willfully putting patients at risk.
This was the opinion of a jury that ordered Walgreens to pay over $30 million to a family after one of their pharmacists was found stealing drugs for personal use—and making mistakes that cost at least one person his life.

Patient suffers stroke because of pharmacist medication mistake.
Leonard Kulisek, a 79-year-old man from Schaumburg, Illinois, was supposed to receive treatment for his gout. Instead, pharmacist James Wilmes mistakenly gave him a diabetes medication. After two days on the drug, Kulisek slipped into a coma, was put on dialysis, and finally suffered a stroke. Tired of suffering a long and painful death, Kulisek made the decision to stop dialysis and died in November 2002.

Pharmacist confesses to stealing pain medication.
When the family sought compensation for the pharmacy’s error, it was discovered that James Wilmes was addicted to prescription pain killers. The pharmacist confessed to stealing over 86,000 pills during his eight years at Walgreens.
While Walgreens admitted to the medication mistake, it stated that it was not responsible for Kulisek's death because he already suffered from kidney problems. The jury, however, thought otherwise.
The only way we could hope to change the system in the future was to hurt them financially," said jury forewoman Lisa Barrington. The decision forced Walgreens to pay $31.3 million to Kulisek's estate.
As board-certified Texas pharmacy error attorneys, we know that most pharmacists are willing to apologize for their mistakes, but it takes a lot more to get them to admit fault. A “simple” mistake can cause serious injury, painful suffering, missed work, costly hospital treatment—and an apology won’t help you pay your bills.
If someone you love has suffered injury or a wrongful death in Texas due to a prescription error, contact Kennedy Hodges today at 888-526-7616 for a free consultation. You can also order our FREE book, How to Make Pharmacies Pay for Your Injuries Caused by Medication Errors.



Kennedy Hodges, LLP helps individuals who have suffered serious injury due to prescription and pharmacy errors across the country, including distributing wrong medications, administering the wrong dosage, and failure to provide medication warnings and instructions.