(Council Bluffs) An Iowa pharmacy tech fired for medication-dispensing errors is suing her former employer, claiming her attention-deficit disorder was a factor in her job performance.
Saleena Gooch is suing Walgreens Pharmacy in U.S District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
The lawsuit alleges the Walgreens store at 2508 W. Broadway, Council Bluffs, hired Gooch in January 2019 as a shift lead and in 2020 transferred her the store’s pharmacy, where she worked as a customer service associate, pharmacy technician and pharmacy operations manager.
In July 2024, the lawsuit claims, Gooch was working in the store when the pharmacist on duty handed her a prescription order and instructed her to sell the medication to a waiting customer. Gooch allegedly followed the pharmacist’s directions, called out the name on the prescription order and the waiting customer responded.
She then asked the customer to verify, on a display screen, the telephone number associated with the order, to which the customer responded, “That is not my number.” Gooch reportedly asked the customer whether the displayed number could be an old phone number, and the customer indicated he didn’t think so, but then confirmed for Gooch the name of the medication included in the order.
Later in the day, another customer arrived and asked for the same prescription order Gooch had already sold, triggering an internal investigation as to what had transpired.
At some point after that incident, the lawsuit claims, Walgreens failed to review its proposed disciplinary action against Gooch in order to “take into consideration her diagnosis” of ADHD, and her employment was terminated.
According to the lawsuit, Gooch had previously been involved in other cases involving errors in dispensing medication. In October 2023, she had sold a prescription order, presumably to the wrong customer, in a situation where two different customers had the same first and last names.
In March 2024, a pharmacist instructed Gooch to ring up a prescription order despite the fact that the courier picking up the order was doing so for multiple customers and could not verify the customer information requested of him. It was later determined that one of the prescription orders was intended for a different individual.
A few weeks after that incident, in April 2024, Gooch sold a prescription order to another individual who was picking up multiple orders for different people. One prescription bag became stuck to another bag and was presumably sold despite a lack of verification as to that person’s identity.
It was after the incidents in March and April of 2024, the lawsuit alleges, that Walgreens management instructed Gooch to be tested for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and she was later diagnosed with the disorder.
Her lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for alleged violations of state and federal laws prohibiting employers from discriminating against an individual on the basis of a physical or mental disability, such as ADHD.
Walgreens has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.
State records indicate Gooch’s pharmacy technician license is in good standing with the Iowa Board of Pharmacy, with no history of public disciplinary action.
