5-Year-Old in ICU from Potentially Bad Batch of ADHD Medicine, 2 Other Children Hospitalized

Mar. 15, 2025

Med Save Pharmacy, which reportedly dispensed the ADHD medication that sickened three children.Photo:Google street view

Google street view

At least three children are in the hospital after taking a liquid form of a popularADHDmedicine, which was dispensed at a Kentucky pharmacy.

Tabitha Drew, whose 5-year-old daughter, Rayven, takes clonidine oral suspension, toldWLKY, that her daughter started feeling ill within ten minutes of taking the medication — and she is now in the intensive care unit at a local hospital.

“She started rubbing her eyes, saying, ‘Mommy, I’m very sleepy,'” Drew told the outlet. “And at the time she had her tablet in her lap, she dropped it and she just went, completely, just lifeless.”

Rayven was rushed to Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville, where she remains.

Two other children were also hospitalized after taking the medication, WLKY said, promptingHenry County emergency medical servicesto post an alert to their Facebook page.

Stock image of a liquid medication.Alamy

Alamy

“If your child has been prescribed clonidine oral suspension and it was filled at MedSave in Eminence, DO NOT administer it to your child. We have reason to believe that there is something wrong with their shipment. DO NOT USE,” the post said.

They later updated their page, sharing that the “Investigation has resulted in enough information to be confident that this incident was isolated to prescriptions for Clonidine Oral Suspension that were filled at the MedSave in Eminence. Thank you all for sharing this as widely as you have.”

Tabitha Drew, whose daughter is in the ICU after taking compounded ADHD medication.wlky/youtube

wlky/youtube

Beth and Ian Burkett’s 21-month-old son Henry also took medicine from the pharmacy, they toldWDRB. He was put on a ventilator following a dose of the medication, which they said was filled at Med Save pharmacy.

“It was definitely an overdose because he receivedNarcanon the way to the hospital,” Burkett told the outlet. “And then he actually received the maximum amount of Narcan in the ER that he was allowed to have.”

They told the outlet that their son is home, but has a “long road” ahead.

“These moments only last 30 seconds to a minute, and she is back out,” Drew said. “This is the last thing I want, is another kid to end up here.”

Clonidine can be compounded — meaning, turned into liquid form — for children who struggle with taking pills.

However, regarding one case study of a 12-year-old who took compounded clonidine, theJournal of Emergency Medicinesaid, “this can add to therisk of dosing errors.”

That patient suffered generalized sedation, bradycardia, and hypotension because his medication’s “concentration was approximately eight times higher than indicated on its label.”

PEOPLE reached out to Med Save, who said they had “No comment.”

source: people.com