Case Dropped Against Pharmacist Refusing to Dispense EpiPen

Charges of exercising poor professional judgment have been dropped against a pharmacist who refused to dispense an EpiPen to a family without a prescription.

The Pharmaceutical Society of Ireland recently held an inquiry involving the pharmacist and a teenager who later died from anaphylactic shock, The Irish Times reported.

Fourteen-year-old Emma Sloan died on the street in Dublin in 2013 after eating a peanut-based sauce at a restaurant, according to the paper.

Pharmacist David Murphy was investigated for his decision not to provide the EpiPen because of the lack of prescription, but the pharmaceutical society has determined that there is no longer a case against him.

A shop assistant at the pharmacy said that Emma’s mother Caroline Sloan had come into the pharmacy saying that “someone she was with” had eaten satay sauce and needed an EpiPen, and the pharmacist told her to call an ambulance, The Irish Times reported.

Caroline disputed that the pharmacist ever told her to call an ambulance.

Meanwhile, the mother was questioned about the discrepancies between her statements in 2013 and now.

When the society’s verdict was announced, she told the pharmacist that she held him responsible for her daughter’s death, according to The Irish Times.

During the inquiry, Stephen Byrne, head of a school of pharmacy in Ireland, said Murphy showed poor professional judgment and should have made an effort to understand the situation before refusing to provide an EpiPen.

Murphy’s lawyer called to have this information ruled inadmissible, but the inquiry did not submit to his request at the time.

The society noted that one of the pieces of evidence that led to its decision was hearing that the pharmacist instructed the Sloan family to go to the hospital.

Since the incident in 2013, the Irish pharmacy has received death threats, The Irish Times reported.