The stories are reminding me of something that happened to a friend/boss of mine back in 1994.

I was working in a McD's. It was a franchise that was owned by a really nice couple. Mr and Mrs C were very nice, probably the best people I ever worked for. One morning, I got to work (it was the 6am opening shift on a saturday) and I noticed that the flag was at half staff.

I went inside and asked why the flag was at half staff and the store manager told me they put it at half staff because Mr. C had died unexpectedly the night before. We didnt know what happened at the time, something to do with his heart.

A few months later the story was in the paper and Mrs. C told us all what happened. She had picked up some prescriptions from a pharmacy that I wont name, was the same one I'd been using at the time. She got prescriptions for Mr. C and prescriptions for her daughter and her son. Her son was named for his father, so he was Mr. C III. Apparently the pharmacy, when filling the prescriptions had put the son's medication (not sure what it was) in his father's pill bottle, and C III got his dad's prescription in his bottle.

That night, when Mr C took his prescription, whatever the medication was caused him some sort of cardiac crisis and he had a MASSIVE heart attack and I think a stroke. The medication was found to be the cause.

Mrs C sued the pharmacy and won. (I think the pharmacist who filled the Rx's got fired and possibly lost his license too, since it wasnt his first mistake) Mrs. C also decided to not keep the McD's franchise and sold both stores that she and her husband owned to the slum lord that owned the rest of the McD's in town. That ended the fun times I had working at McD's. I quit about a year and a half after Mr. C died. (the slum lord of McD's no longer owns any McD's. He lost his franchising, so it's now safe to eat at McD's here again)

I try to always remember to check my prescriptions now, and if they change something, I always make sure to call the pharmacy and ask about it. I also will google the numbers and letters on the pills to see what they are too. I still use the same pharmacy that I did back then, but I switched to another branch. So far, I havent had a problem with getting someone else's Rx.

I did recently find out that there's someone with the exact same name as me who uses the same bank I do, and I'm pretty sure she's at the same pharmacy too. I called about a Rx about a month ago, and they didnt ask me any information to confirm who I was when I was asking about something, and they were confused for a minute because the med I was asking about wasnt on the account they were looking at. She asked me what my address was and then said "whoops, that explains it. I was looking at the wrong one". So, now I know to be really careful about my meds I pick up.

Good thing I've pretty much stopped taking everything but my migraine pills (which just changed because they dont make my migraine med anymore)