CENTRAL OHIO -- The death of a beautiful 2-year-old girl led way to a new law that protects anyone who may need a prescription filled.
Emily Jerry's parents shared their heartache and their fight with NBC 4's Tom Brockman Wednesday.
NBC 4 has reported on Emily's story several times before. She was fighting cancer and tragically died during her final chemotherapy treatment.
Emily's parents said she was given too much medicine; it's a mistake they blame on the pharmacy technician.
A new law signed Wednesday could prevent another tragedy.
Brockman was at the Statehouse when Gov. Ted Strickland signed the bill into law – Emily's Law.
The Jerry family was present at the signing, which culminates their nearly three-year battle to make sure what happened to their daughter doesn't happen to anyone else.
"It's kind of surreal right now," Kelly Jerry said
Kelly took her 2-year-old daughter to Cleveland's University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in February of 2006.
Emily's final cancer treatment turned fatal after she was given a lethal dosage of saline solution in her medicine.
A pharmacy technician prepared the medicine and Supervisor Eric Cropp signed off on it, according to the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy.
Kelly did some digging in the weeks following Emily's death and discovered Ohio did not require pharmacy techs to be trained, tested or licensed.
That's not the case anymore.
"I think this was common-sense legislation," Strickland said.
Emily's Law establishes standards for qualified pharmacy technicians, requires them to undergo a criminal background check and establishes penalties for certain activities, including compounding, packaging and preparing a drug by an individual who is not a pharmacist, pharmacy intern or qualified pharmacy technician.
"Anytime someone loses a child that's very difficult, but to do this so other families don't have to endure the tragedy and the heartbreak we had to endure, it makes it worth the while -- the battle," Kelly said.
Senator Tim Grendell sponsored the legislation behind Emily's Law.
"If we avoid even one more Emily Jerry situation, then this law has served its purpose," Grendell said.
The pharmacist in Emily's case lost his pharmaceutical license and currently faces third-degree felonies that could leave him in prison for five years, if he were to be found guilty.
Strickland and Grendell said Emily's Law is one of the strictest laws of any state; if a tech breaks the law, he or she and his/her employer can face criminal charges.
Ohio's pharmacies have a year to comply with the law.
Strickland signed another 37 bills into law, including one that maintains a workers' compensation system and another that requires booster seats for kids between the ages of 4 and 8.
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