Life- threatening Spanish Translations.
April 11, 2010
What happens when a good intention- combined with a regulatory requirement- is addressed with the “easy and cheap” solution? This is what some pharmacies are doing by using automated computer programs to translate their labels and prescriptions into Spanish. Saving some money on the up-front could potentially turn into a costly law suit and life-threatening translation!
A recent article published by HealthDay News reports that “many Spanish-speaking people in the United States receive prescription instructions from the pharmacy so poorly translated that the medications are potentially hazardous to their health” Some examples quoted mention catastrophic mistakes like the word “once” , which means “eleven” in Spanish used wrong. “You mean to say ‘once,’ as in ‘take once a day,’ and a Spanish-speaking person could interpret that to mean ‘eleven,’” Such a mistake could result in an overdose, and computer translators are not catching those nuances.
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