On Friday, Walgreen Co. was ordered by a jury to pay $25.8 million to the family of a cancer patient given a medication that caused a stroke and then several years later, death.

Beth Hippely was prescribed Warfarin, a blood thinner, in 2002 while being treated for breast cancer. According to court documents, the prescription she received at a Walgreen's pharmacy was 10 times what it should have been. The overdose caused a cerebral hemorrhage which led to permanent bodily injury, disability, pain, and then death. Hippely, a mother of three, died at the age of 46. Apparently, the error occurred when a 19-year-old pharmacy technician misfiled the prescription.

Hippely's family has been seeking justice for five years.

If clinical trials go well, a new drug simulating the effects of normal sunlight and increasing the life expectancy of prostate cancer patients, could be available in 2009.

The drug, Asentar, provided levels of vitamin D between 50 and 100 times higher than levels delivered by the sun and could double life expectancy from nine to 18 months for those taking the pills. Absent would be any of the consequences associated with such an overdose.

"An extension of nine months would be very significant in my view," said Nick James of the University of Birmingham. "If the results of the phase III trial are as good as those of the phase II trial, that would be significant."

Details about this study can be found in the journal Chemistry & Industry.

The family has asked that they not be identified by name as they grieve the loss of their family member lost to a massive overdose of the chemotherapy drug 5-fluorouracil. Last week, a 43-year-old mother of three, died from a massive chemotherapy drug overdose mistakenly administered by a portable pump used primarily by gastrointestinal, genito-urinary and head and neck cancer patients. The fatal dose of 5-fluorouracil was 24 times what was intended.

According to the report, a nurse programmed the wrong information into the woman's pump. Another nurse checked the pump but failed to notice the error. Four days later, the woman was dead. The Cross Cancer Institute calls this mistake one of the center's worst nightmares but they will not hide the mistake.

While the nurses who made the error are receiving counseling over the mistake they made that led to the mother's death, they will not be disciplined for the error, as the cancer center believes it was not due to negligence. Then what was it due to? There are times when human error cannot be allowed to be made as it can be fatal -- as in this case. There are some professions that require an absolute fail-safe set of procedures and practices that do not allow for human error. A standard of professional excellence in carrying out one's job that this type of incident does not happen -- even once. Because human life can be lost. How do you remedy that error -- right that wrong? I feel for this family, for the children left motherless due to the errors made by two nurses.

According to the woman's oncologist, she had a 75 percent chance of surviving her cancer diagnosis. Tragically, she did not survive treatment. An investigation by the Institute for Safe Medication Practices is underway, and the cancer center states it will implement any changes recommended.