Pharmacist died on the job from heart attack because CVS wouldn't let her leave - any truth to this rumor?

[rph3664]

I'm hearing chatter about this, and even have a name and a state.

The story is that she was working the overnight shift and had symptoms she recognized as those of a heart attack, called her supervisor, and this is what happened. Certainly there's going to be someone here who knows more.

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[PharmDBro2017]

No surprise. Sad as hell though.

Greedy corporation(s) that runs their employees into the ground, don't care an iota about the customer/patients or employees' mental health. Force you to work with a skeleton crew every shift and pray you don't make an error that kills a patient.

 

[gwarm01]

She should have taken the advice we are supposed to give patients and call 911. Shut down the pharmacy and take care of yourself. It's like we've been trained from birth to be subservient to our corporate masters and people just can't wake up and think for themselves.

 

[sfachine]

You know the hospitals would be overflowing and the corpses would pile up if the pharmacy was closed for a couple of hours.

 

[Pronounce Doxazosin]

If the story is true, the biggest shock to me is the fact that her supervisor actually answered a call from an overnight pharmacist

 

[lord999]

This has happened numerous times, at least twice in Phoenix by pharmacists I directly knew (one died, one got to the Cath lab in time). It never ends well for the corporation which is why I am always surprised this happens.

 

[radio frequency]

If the story is true, the biggest shock to me is the fact that her supervisor actually answered a call from an overnight pharmacist

I like this dark humor.…but you aren’t wrong.

 

[pinkpharmd]

Goodness, I guess there is truth in this story. I just learned about it now.

I hope there is legal action against the supervisor. I am also shocked the supervisor answered the pharmacist's call.

 

[sfachine]

If the story is true, the biggest shock to me is the fact that her supervisor actually answered a call from an overnight pharmacist

It is a big 'if'.

 

[owlegrad]

I had this happen to me once, although in my case it was SVT. I just closed the pharmacy and went to the hospital. It never occurred to me to do otherwise and all my supervisor said about it was that he hoped I made a speedy recovery.

I just simply cannot imagine that the pharmacist or supervisor recognized the urgency of the situation. It reminds me of the story of the aircraft that ran out of fuel and crashed while circling the airport waiting for a runway. Crazy.

 

[RxPreceptor]

Oh man, yeah supervisor even acknowledging/responding to an overnighter being a total shock....savage

Would not be surprised; the desperation to let an employee's health deteriorate/die just to stay open is sadly too real
These are the same supervisors who push employees to make 30min drives to work in record blizzards (know plenty who've totaled cars doing so...thank god none of them were injured)

 

[Sunshine98*]

Killing yourself for a job in which you will be replaced within a week if you drop dead.

 

[radio frequency]

For anyone who has ever been on day two of vomiting up their guts nonstop while getting calls that you need to come in from management, this story should come as no surprise. For people who work in healthcare, many of our managers don’t keep our own health in mind first and foremost.

Just keep in mind, if we don’t take care of ourselves, we can’t take care of others. Our health needs matter too. Don’t ever let management dictate what you do in a healthcare crisis. There are always other jobs but we only get one body.

 

[RxPreceptor]

 

[sfachine]

The longer this goes on without specifics the less I believe it.

 

[youRCC]

Killing yourself for a job in which you will be replaced within a week if you drop dead.

Well with the way things are going right now, they ain't finding a replacement that soon!

 

[Xenophylia]

When I was in retail, I worked for a small corporate chain on the East coast. It was supposedly one of the "better" chains to work for (an oxymoron by definition). A pharmacist at a nearby store was told to stay put while having clear symptoms of a heart attack until relief arrived. This was back when the whole chain only had like 2 floaters since pharmacists were scarce. Only got to leave when the EMTs who showed up told management that if he didn't go to the hospital immediately his imminent death would be on their hands. He did survive, but no thanks to management. I'm sure there are many incidents like this.

 

[Deja]

I really wonder what goes through management's heads in emergencies like these? will closing the store for a few hours or one night really hurt you that much

 

[youRCC]

The longer this goes on without specifics the less I believe it.

Ashleigh M. Anderson - Obituary

 

[Xenophylia]

And even with all of her achievements, to her corporate overlords she was considered less than worthless. Gotta love the big chains.

 

[Sunshine98*]

And even with all of her achievements, to her corporate overlords she was considered less than worthless. Gotta love the big chains.

which is why I'm saving as much as I can to get out! each eval all you get told that its not enough?? Dont get a raise anymore? Constantly having to clean up everyone's mess (Rph and Techs), Have to struggle to get days off, cause they add extra shifts on me and dont on others? one customer complain and corporate pops a vein? Ive really lost myself and its taken its toll on me. I know my health is not good now.

 

[Heroic Combo]

I doubt the supervisor said that you MUST stay OR BE FIRED.... I think she just thought she could stick it out but obviously couldn't. She should have closed and left.

 

[Xenophylia]

Just got an email today from some CVS corporate recruiter to ask me to add them to my linked in so they can "contact" me. In this area there are so many open CVS positions it's unbelievable. Thought it might be fun to add them and then ask them about this incident. And also to tell them I wouldn't reduce myself to working for them if they were the last pharmacy on earth.

And the line my former employee gave their pharmacist having a heart attack was that "they were obligated to keep the pharmacy open until relief arrived". Like keeping the pharmacy open is so important. Yet it's ok to close stores randomly when you can't find employees dumb enough to work for you! LOL Pharmacy has truly become a running bad joke.

 

[DH1987]

There is absolutely no job or any amount of money that is worth your health. At Wags they're now piling on pediatric shots on top of everything else when we can't even get our fill count below 100. It's completely unacceptable and I won't put up with it much longer. I've already got over 10 years living expenses saved up, if I lose my job I won't be hurting. It might even be good for me.

Pharmacy just keeps getting worse every year and will continue to get worse until we stand up to these corporate a**holes and do something about it. While the CEO is getting a $30 million dollar bonus we're fighting tooth and nail for a 1.5% yearly raise, which won't even cover inflation, while we're destroying our minds and bodies. At some point, we have to say "Enough". There is no justification for this.

 

[Xenophylia]

All the openings CVS has should tell them something, especially with such a glut of pharmacists. But of course their solution to everything is to just throw money at it. Hopefully the sign on bonuses won't be enough to attract new grads. Most veteran pharmacists know better. The only leverage we have is to just simply not work for them. But there will always be someone seeing only $$$ and as long as they can get warm bodies to keep themselves open we'll never beat them.

 

[DoctorRx1986]

The fact that pharmacists are leaving in masses along with technicians should tell them something . Why work like a slave in retail when you could potentially work remotely from home for the same salary or even slightly more ? I know a few pharmacists doing that .

 

[DoctorRx1986]

All the openings CVS has should tell them something, especially with such a glut of pharmacists. But of course their solution to everything is to just throw money at it. Hopefully the sign on bonuses won't be enough to attract new grads. Most veteran pharmacists know better. The only leverage we have is to just simply not work for them. But there will always be someone seeing only $$$ and as long as they can get warm bodies to keep themselves open we'll never beat them.

That’s the problem - they’re not keeping anybody . Even the new grads who start off at a low early 2000s salary of $45-$47 per hour last less than a year before finding something much better . And the bonuses shouldn’t be keeping anyone around because they are lame - at the corner devil , $1,000 at $1,250 most recent . Who does anything with that ? Sure , nice to get some extra money but who will stick around for $1k?

 

[WVUPharm2007]

Oh man, yeah supervisor even acknowledging/responding to an overnighter being a total shock....savage

I haven't spoken to a supervisor since like 2017. I'm not sure the current one knows I exist. Which is fine.

 

[APN-59 rph]

Corporate expectation is that if you have the big one...holler "I quit" before ya hit the floor......saves on the job death payouts doncha know...

 

[DH1987]

Correction to my earlier post: You get a 2.5% yearly raise if you get a 3.0 score or above. I'm sitting right at 2.9 the last two years. Imagine that...

 

[sfachine]

Correction to my earlier post: You get a 2.5% yearly raise if you get a 3.0 score or above. I'm sitting right at 2.9 the last two years. Imagine that...

Me too.

 

[BidingMyTime]

I agree with Owl, likely neither her nor the supervisor recognized the seriousness of the situation. I'm sure all of us have went into work feeling less than ideal, or finished out a shift when we were getting pretty sick. A female pharmacist, 41 years, and normal weight by the picture, is extremely low risk for a heart attack. And with heart attack symptoms often being non-specific in women, there is no reason why she nor the supervisor would have thought it was anything than her just feeling a normal sick and needed to get home to rest. It's not like she called the supervisor and said "hey, I'm having a heart attack", and the supervisor is like, "well, I'll see if I can get someone to come in an hour or 2 early so you can leave an hour or 2 early to go to the hospital." I would hope if anyone actually was having a heart attack, they would just immediately go to the ER, letting a technician or store manager know to lock up the pharmacy.

 

[alpha12]

Correction to my earlier post: You get a 2.5% yearly raise if you get a 3.0 score or above. I'm sitting right at 2.9 the last two years. Imagine that...

Does 2.5% even keep up with "transitory" inflation?

 

[sadface]

I’ve been on the phone with 911 about a coworker while still counting out pills as a Walgreens tech. They simply do not care.

 

[Xenophylia]

Funny. I'm pretty sure a mentally compromised chimp could recognize signs of a potential heart attack. Yet a CVS manager can't? That's letting them off the hook pretty easy, which is exactly how they like it....

 

[Xenophylia]

Correction to my earlier post: You get a 2.5% yearly raise if you get a 3.0 score or above. I'm sitting right at 2.9 the last two years. Imagine that...

Wow. Not only are they dangling the carrot in front of you, but they're pretty much sticking it up your a**. Hope you like carrots....

 

[mentos]

Correction to my earlier post: You get a 2.5% yearly raise if you get a 3.0 score or above. I'm sitting right at 2.9 the last two years. Imagine that...

Too bad inflation is 6.2% this year.

 

[PikminOC]

I agree with Owl, likely neither her nor the supervisor recognized the seriousness of the situation. I'm sure all of us have went into work feeling less than ideal, or finished out a shift when we were getting pretty sick. A female pharmacist, 41 years, and normal weight by the picture, is extremely low risk for a heart attack. And with heart attack symptoms often being non-specific in women, there is no reason why she nor the supervisor would have thought it was anything than her just feeling a normal sick and needed to get home to rest. It's not like she called the supervisor and said "hey, I'm having a heart attack", and the supervisor is like, "well, I'll see if I can get someone to come in an hour or 2 early so you can leave an hour or 2 early to go to the hospital." I would hope if anyone actually was having a heart attack, they would just immediately go to the ER, letting a technician or store manager know to lock up the pharmacy.

What were the symptoms?

 

[BidingMyTime]

What were the symptoms?

You mean when I have went into work sick? Normal cold symptoms-snotty, coughing, congested (obviously pre-COVID), but who hasn't went to work with normal cold symptoms? And once or twice I started feeling nauseous and blecky at work, but finished out the shift.

 

[BidingMyTime]

Funny. I'm pretty sure a mentally compromised chimp could recognize signs of a potential heart attack. Yet a CVS manager can't? That's letting them off the hook pretty easy, which is exactly how they like it....

In men, sure. But women often have non-specific symptoms, and often don't have chest pain. Many women don't realize they are having a heart attack when it starts.

 

[Xenophylia]

Good point- the incident with the company I worked for the pharmacist was male and it was supposedly textbook presentation. Still not good enough for management.