What’s in the box? If you are delivered medications or medical supplies, don’t assume that whatever you received is necessarily the right thing. (Photo: Getty)
getty
A woman in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, was expecting medications and medical supplies to be delivered to her place. But when she opened the box that arrived, she quickly realized that something was amiss and could definitely put a finger on what was wrong. Make that four human fingers and two human arms.
Yep, that’s what was in the box instead, as reported by Dryden Quigley for WSMV4. The woman was accidentally sent a box of human upper extremities packed in ice, which must have been extremely surprising and distressing.
The Package Included Arms And Fingers For Surgical Training
Therefore, it’s not surprisingly that the woman then called 911. This eventually led to the woman being connected with the county coroner’s office, which after doing some checks gave her the 411 of what had happened. An airline company, a freight company and a private courier kind of got their communications and thus the delivery of the arms and fingers crossed.
Austin Mullen and David K. Li reporting for NBC News quoted Christian County Coroner Scott Daniel as stating, “Yes, true story. She was expecting medical supplies and found arms and fingers in the box” and “The box was intended to be delivered for surgical training but was somehow delivered to her front porch.”
Coroner Daniel brought the cadaver body parts back to the county morgue and eventually gave the courier the finger, or rather the fingers and arms. From there, the body parts were delivered to their intended destination. Meanwhile, the woman eventually got the medications and medical supplies that she was originally expecting.
Delivery Mistakes Are Common
Now, it isn’t every day that you get human body parts accidentally delivered to you. So, every time you order something on like Amazon, you probably don’t have to wonder, “Gee, I wonder if I am going to get a head today.” However, it is quite common for delivery errors in general to occur. For example, a survey of over 1,000 customers conducted by Circuit found that around nine in 10 respondents had had a food or grocery delivery go wrong, as Joe Guszkowski wrote for Restaurant Business in 2022.
The wrong food order may be obvious and not super problematic. For example, you’ll probable recognize it when you order some fruit and a cake and get a single fruitcake instead. This may be a bit irksome or the best thing ever, depending on your point of view and what bill of goods you may have been sold.
Mistakes in delivering medications and medical supplies can be much more problematic, though. Potentially even life-threateningly problematic. Your medical problems may be left untreated or uncontrolled or whatever you received instead could end up causing you serious harm.
Such risks may grow as the delivery of medications and medical supplies directly to apartments and homes continues to grow. A study showed than the percentage of U.S. adults receiving prescription medications by mail went from 10.2% in 1996 up to 17.0% in 2005 before declining a bit down to 15.7% in 2018. While there’s no established system to track the number of medication and medical supply delivery problems that occur across the country, a national survey conducted in August 2020 did reveal that a quarter of mail-order prescription users reported a problem with medication delivery just in the week prior, according to Heidi Godman writing for the Harvard Health Letter.
Check Your Package When It Is Delivered
Therefore, never assume that you were delivered the correct medications or medical supplies. Always check your package, meaning any package that is delivered to you. Make sure that the shipping labels are correct and that you recognize the origin and deliverer of the package. The box or whatever packaging the products came in should not be damaged. The product should be appropriately protected, especially if it is sensitive to certain temperature exposures.
Once you open the package, make sure that what’s inside is what you are supposed to be getting. Compare it to whatever you’ve gotten previously. If this is the first time you are using these medications or supplies, compare them with pictures and diagrams of what they are supposed to look like from reputable sources, preferably from whoever prescribed you the medications or supplies.
Read any accompanying instructions and documentation as well. These should look formal on organizational letterhead and not look like someone would give to you in a nightclub when you ask that person for his or her number. If anything looks off, like grammatical errors, inconsistent instructions or the lack of any warnings, contact the health professionals taking care of you before using any of the products.
In general, it’s important to know what you might be putting on or in your body. You wouldn’t eat or sleep with something that you have never seen or checked out before, would you? So, why would you do this with medical products?
Remember, if anything seems off, hold off from using the product, even if you can’t put a finger on exactly what’s wrong. Double-check all aspects of the product with your medical care team. It’s better to be safe than sorry. It’s also better to armed with the proper knowledge and assurances even if what you got isn’t obviously an arm.