A MOM has lost her pregnancy after a CVS pharmacy gave her abortion pills instead of fertility medication.

Timika Thomas, who lives in Las Vegas, hoped to grow her family and had recently transferred two embryos via a costly round of in vitro fertilization (IVF).

The procedure required a regimen of hormone-boosting prescriptions to help the pregnancy at its earliest stages.

But the monumental mix-up stopped her pregnancy in its tracks.

“I thought because I’d already had children I was good. But IVF is humbling. It humbled me,” she told The U.S. Sun.

Not having grown up in a big family, Tamika decided to create her own as an adult and shares four children with her ex-husband.

In 2017, the mom reconnected with James Thomas, whom she first met in high school at age 16.

After he kept reacting to photos of her with kids on Facebook, she sent him a message, and the two eventually wed.

Together, they had already created a blended family — James has one child from a previous relationship — but the couple still wanted to have a baby of their own.

Tamika was 35 at the time and experienced some difficulty conceiving this time around.

She had two ectopic pregnancies, which led to her needing her fallopian tubes removed.

Still, despite the medical setback, the pair was determined to add to their family.

And even though their insurance didn’t cover the costs, they decided to move forward with IVF.

By June 14, 2019, Tamika had already undergone multiple embryo transfers. On this date, she was sedated and two embryos were transferred to her uterus.

She was prescribed vital post-procedural medication, one of which would help increase her chances by tricking her body into producing enough hormones to allow the embryo to hatch and implant on her uterine wall.

“You have to make yourself think it’s pregnant,” Timika told Las Vegas CBS affiliate KLAS.

“We’re taking a lot of supplements to make our bodies think it’s pregnant.”

In her previous IVF attempts, Timika followed up by taking a shot in her buttocks to trigger the hormones.

But she said this time around she wanted to give her body “a rest” from the emotionally exhausting injections.

They just killed my baby. Both my babies, because I transferred two embryos.

Timika Thomas

Her doctor prescribed her a vaginal suppository instead of the injections and she went to her local CVS in North Las Vegas to fill the prescription.

But she knew something was wrong almost immediately after taking two of her required doses when she started experiencing unusually severe cramping.

She had anticipated cramping having already undergone the IVF process unsuccessfully before.

But the intensity of the cramps she felt this time was much different.

“My cramping went beyond that,” she told KLAS. “It was extreme. It was painful.”

She decided to check the prescription bottle. “I still have the bottle,” she told The U.S. Sun.

She proceeded to read off the details from the bottle. “Misoprostol, 100 mcg, commonly known as Cytotec.”

It was then that she realized that instead of taking medication to help facilitate her growing family, she’d actually taken drugs used to terminate pregnancy.

“They just killed my baby,” Tamika told KLAS. “Both my babies, because I transferred two embryos.”

Documents obtained by KLAS outline how two technicians and two pharmacists made a series of mistakes that led to Timika receiving the wrong medication. These errors essentially terminated her pregnancy on the spot.

The missteps include one technician incorrectly believing she knew the generic name for the brand prescribed by the doctor. But she did not and entered the wrong name into the prescription.

Another pharmacist did not catch the error, and then another pharmacist did not consult with Timika when she picked up her prescription.

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“It [the error] would have been caught because then they would have had to have the medicine in their hand,” she told KLAS.

“And they would have said, ‘Oh, this is Misoprostol or Cytotek, have you taken this before?’ And I would have said ‘no.’”

PHARMACISTS FINED

Timika filed a complaint with the Nevada State Board of Pharmacy, but she did not have her day in court until September 2023, when she was forced to relive the heartbreaking ordeal during her testimony.

The final outcome: the two pharmacists were fined and had their licenses provisionally suspended.

If they both avoid disciplinary action over the next 12 months, pay fines, and take continuing education credits, their licenses will be reinstated, according to pharmacy board documents.

During the hearing, an attorney for CVS tried to distance the drugstore chain from the employees, saying: “To suspend or take action against a pharmacy license when they really didn’t do anything wrong [it] wasn’t pled they did anything wrong.”

“The only allegation is that they had these pharmacists,” the attorney said before the board imposed the fine.

“I felt like that was not okay because he should have took initiative for the company as a whole,” she said.

Both pharmacists apologized to Timika, she said.

On the stand, one, sobbing, said, “It’s a human error. It was just a human error and I’m so sorry,” KLAS reported.

But the tears and apologies were no consolation for Timika.

“All I got was a sorry,” she said. “It will never be good enough.”

In response to inquiries from KLAS, CVS provided the following statement: “We’ve apologized to our patient for the prescription incident that occurred in 2019 and have cooperated with the Nevada Board of Pharmacy in this matter.

“The health and well-being of our patients is our number one priority and we have comprehensive policies and procedures in place to support prescription safety. 

“Prescription errors are very rare, but if one does occur, we take steps to learn from it in order to continuously improve quality and patient safety.”

Even after this ordeal, the Thomases continued to try for a baby.

Tamika underwent a total of 18 embryo transfers.

All I got was a sorry. It will never be good enough.

Timika Thomas

She traveled across state lines and international borders, sometimes driving five hours to minimize the expensive cost of IVF treatments.

“At times I was living paycheck to paycheck. Taking from Peter to pay Paul,” she told The U.S. Sun.

She even took on a job as an Amazon packer because of their impressive IVF coverage.

Finally, after years of trying and no previous successful embryo transfers, the Thomases welcomed their rainbow baby Truu Thomas on July 9, 2023.

Truu was born prematurely at 25 weeks, weighing under two pounds.

Since then, Tamika has had to temporarily relocate to Utah where her Truu is receiving treatment for an issue with his airway.

“I need help,” she said before sharing that she spends her days at the hospital with her child, so she’s unable to work.

Sometimes she stays at the hospital or the local Ronald McDonald House.

Meanwhile, James remains in Las Vegas with her nine-year-old daughters. However, he is also currently unemployed.

Right now, the family is struggling to pay their rent, as they continue to pursue further legal action against CVS and attempt to bounce back from the cost of years of fertility treatments.

Tamika said the cost per embryo transfer ranges from $10,000 in Las Vegas to $2,500 in Tijuana, where she drove several times to save money.

A GoFundMe page was recently started to help the Thomas family during this difficult time.

It is unclear when Truu will be able to come home.

With a goal of $2,000, the Thomases have received 25 donations and raised $865 as of publication.

CVS has been approached for comment.