When my wife was ill she insisted on taking responsibility for her own medication and didnt like me interfering. .
Upon release from hospital one time, she became increasingly drowsy over the next few days. It became scary.when I couldnt rouse her. I called an ambulance. Nothing had changed meds wise but whilst I was waiting I got all her meds together . . The discharge form and hospital pharmacy had prescribed an anti emetic which was twice the strength of her usual dose. It did say on the box once a day in very small writing on the box and she obviously missed that. And had taken her usual 2 per day.
The upshot was the ambulance guy had to look up on an app whether it was a toxic dose and said it was considered a possible overdose.
It's not an unserstatement to say that it could have compromised her breathing and quickly become fatal. We ended up back in hospital.
She obviously missed the fact that the dose and frequency had changed but the box and tablet looked the same and it wasnt clear enough on the very small writing on the label. It certainly wasnt pointed out to us when we were given the meds.
I took over from then on. I had a typed list of all her meds. I queried any dose increases or changes and checked and double checked. Even after that she was prescribed things she shouldnt have had or wrong doses. And as she became more Ill it wouldve been increasingly hard for her to do that for herself.