Overdose from pain pump refill

Posted by bubbles888 @bubbles888, 8 hours ago

I have had a pain pump for over 5 years, with no problems. In June I went for my refill, and something went wrong, and I ended up in the emergency room with an overdose that they said could have taken my life. It was a very frightening experience. And I was in the emergency room for 5 hours. When I spoke to my pain doctor and told them what happened, they told me that there was no possible way it could have been their error or an error on the part of the apparatus. I am due for another refill in September, and I am very chance about getting this redone. I'd like to know if anyone out there has ever had this happen or known about it happening. I'm just perplexed and have no idea where to turn for further answers because I'm absolutely sure I didn't have any type of mood altering drugs or anything different than I usually would have had in my my system. I've looked at this from all angles and don't have any idea about how to figure out the rest of it. I called the pain pump company, and they sent a representative to check my device. They couldn't find where it was leaking or anything like that. Both the doctor and the drug company representative have stated that they've done all that they can do to check it and it it's just not possible for it to have malfunctions and caused overdose that way. But it wasn't a small overdose it was massive as it was responsible for my overdose reaction. And the medical personnel and the emergency room you did say that if we hadn't gotten there and I just come inside to rest I wouldn't be here. Did anyone has any information whatsoever please make a reply thank you

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Chronic Pain Support Group.

Miriam, Volunteer Mentor | @mir123 | 6 hours ago

I think the best place for you to post this would be in the Chronic Pain support group. Might you go ahead and do that? It is a more specific group and more likely to have experiences and information. You might get some feedback here, but particularly of you don't, post there. You can also search on pain pump and see if you find anything useful that way. I'm sorry to hear of this experience and hope you get some helpful insight.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | 5 hours ago

@bubbles888, as @mir123 suggested, I moved your question to the Chronic Pain support group here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/pain/ No need to repost.

That must've been a very scary experience and I can understand your apprehension getting the next refill. It doesn't sound like you are getting any answers about how this could've happened. I might suggest you also ask what safeguards will be put in place to ensure that it doesn't happen again.

When you get the refill, are you usually asked to wait for a period of time to ensure that it is functioning properly? Might that be something you request at the next refill?

frouke | @frouke | 3 hours ago

I did a little research and it is very possible for a pain pump to cause an overdose, some reasons mentioned are, pump malfunction, pump dump which means too much drug was released, error in program when refilled and possibly using patches or oral medication with the pump. I don’t think that you did anything wrong and just be very cautious if you can to make sure it doesn’t happen again.