It Smells Funny
I used to work as a pharmacy tech. Most antibiotics for kids come as a powder in a bottle. We add distilled water to make it into a liquid upon receiving prescriptions, as the solution only remains stable for 10 to 14 days, depending. One day, a father dropped an amoxicillin prescription for a child.
The product was prepared and given to the father. He left. Two hours later, he came back. He said that the medication smelled funny. I thought, “Duh, medications often do”. I still wafted the scent with my hand to my nose, and he was right—something was off. I give the bottle to the pharmacist.
He agreed and made another bottle right away. The original bottle smelled like straight-up alcohol. In the lab, we kept multiple solvents for many uses—water, simple syrup, mineral oil, ethanol, etc. One of the techs added ethanol to the antibiotic instead of water.
We were all flabbergasted at how the mistake could have occurred because all the solvents are different sizes, have different colored labels, and are identified in giant letters.
We identified the tech who was guilty of the mistake, and they couldn’t even say how that error occurred.