CALGARY – A Calgary family is shaken after their son easily broke open a medication bottle, consuming the pills inside.
A few weeks ago two-year-old Jesse Hanses ate thirty synthroid, a thyroid pill; he spent the following four days in hospital receiving charcoal and blood tests.
Jesse’s father Barry says he had left the bottle on the counter and didn’t know Jesse had taken them until he saw green residue in the child’s mouth and down his chest. He has since watched his son open the container in less than 10 seconds.
Barry is outraged he was able to open the supposed child resistant bottle so quickly. ”I just want to make people aware this is not child resistant. If a two-year-old can get in there? The traditional ones where you line up the arrows, that’s much more difficult.”
Other parents say they’ve experienced close encounters with pill bottles and their own toddlers. “It was a pill bottle and she was just shaking it for the noise,” says mother Melissa Williams. “Before we knew it she had opened it.”
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When Hanses complained to the bottle manufacturer Ecolopharm they were unwilling to change the lids. He was told the eco-friendly bottles were tested and approved by the Canadian Standards Association.
“We have good confidence with our product. It is not childproof, it’s child resistant. The CSA certification is very clear and very strict,” says Sandrine Milante, VP Executive of Ecolopharm.
That’s little consolation to the Hanses family whose story could have ended in tragedy. “He could have had what’s known as a thyroid storm. His heart could have stopped. He could have died,” says Barry.
Ecolopharm maintains it’s the parent’s responsibility to keep medication well away from children’s reach.
“If that container were stored appropriately, away from children, this never would have happened,” says Milante.
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