CLEVELAND -- Your prescription medication can save your life. But the wrong pills can kill you.

"There was an egregious error and the family believes it occurred on numerous occasions," Owen Dunn said.

Dunn's grandfather, Joe Hayduk, had a bladder disorder but pharmacy records show he was given a drug for diabetes instead. Hayduk died within months.

Dunn explains, "He was taken to the emergency room by the paramedics. They couldn't get his blood sugar under control."

NewsChannel5 found it took two letters from the family and two months before the State Pharmacy Board even began asking questions. Finally, a pharmacy board investigation resulted in a $750 fine. The pharmacist kept his license.

"None of his colleagues in the medical profession raised the error to the attention of the right monitoring agency," Dunn said.

According to a government report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, medication errors harm 1.5 million people every year.

Here in Ohio, there's no law requiring pharmacists to report mistakes. They can be kept secret.

NewsChannel5's On Your Side investigation found the State Pharmacy Board allows pharmacists to stay on the job even after making deadly mistakes.

NewsChannel5 found 58 prescription mistakes over a full 10 months. Mistakes finally uncovered by pharmacy board investigators who found one patient "died due to a brain injury resulting from severe hypoglycemia."

The pharmacist was fired but simply moved on to another pharmacy. It's called "pharmacy hopping."

Kelly Jerry's 2-year-old daughter died from a serious prescription error.

"To lose a child is the worst thing that can ever happen to anybody," Jerry said.

A Pharmacy Board investigation found that during chemotherapy Jerry's daughter, Emily, was given an overdose of sodium chloride.

Jerry said, "You live with it every minute of every day."

But NewsChannel5's review of pharmacy records uncovered something even more startling.

Pharmacist Eric Cropp was later hired by another pharmacy. The On Your Side investigation found he continued to make even more mistakes at his new job.

Pharmacy records show 13 more dispensing errors in just six months -- including one that harmed another child.

Cropp's license was revoked and he now faces reckless homicide charges in court.

Jerry said, "I was shocked and disgusted to hear that he could go down the street and get a new job and that there was no tracking system involved."

So how can this happen?

The NewsChannel5 investigation found that, in Ohio, even deadly mistakes can be kept secret. There's no mandatory reporting of pharmacy errors.

NewsChannel5 showed the findings to the State Board of Pharmacy.

"Mandatory reporting of serious errors would get us started on them earlier. I do think some judgment needs to be involved on where that line is drawn as to what is mandatorily reported and what is not," William Winsley of the Ohio Board of Pharmacy said.

While there currently is no mandatory reporting, NewsChannel5 did find some 200 complaints of pharmacy errors over the last two years.

This report is already generating a big response and there's going to be action taken. NewsChannel5 will have more on that in part 2 of "Prescription for Trouble."