Medication Error Lawyer

     

     Our law office gets a lot of calls involving pharmacy and anesthesia errors involving either the administration of improper medication or the failure to administer medication.  It is not surprising, given that an astronomical 1.5 million people every year are victims of medication errors, according to a 2006 report by The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. More people die annually from medication errors than from on the job injuries, according to the National Coordinating Council for Medication Error Reporting and Prevention.   Fortunately, most of these injuries - particularly the pharmacy misfills - are benign, but pharmaceutical medication errors still account for almost a quarter of medical malpractice cases.  The most common types of drug medication cases we encounter are:

  • Improper medication combinations – There are many prescription error cases where the drugs would be properly prescribed alone, but together cause serious or fatal injuries.  These problems can be resolved by reading the package inserts and some hospitals and pharmacies have computer programs to assist in avoiding error.  Yet there are still thousands of injuries from improper prescription combinations every year.
  • Wrong medication - The patient is simply given the wrong medication by the pharmacy because a pharmacy misfill.  According to Jury Verdict Research, plaintiffs prevail at trial in 31% of these pharmacy misfill cases.
  • Handwriting errors – Incredibly in 2008, our lawyers still commonly see the failure to administer the proper dosage from handwriting transcription errors.  In the fortunate cases, handwriting error will only delay the time until patients receive their prescribed drug. At worst, a misread order can lead to serious injury or death. A lot of experts started making guesses as to the percentage of handwriting prescription errors after the heparin overdose given to Dennis Quaid's infant twins, but no definite study has been done to demonstrate the number of prescription handwriting errors.
  • Drug name mix-ups - Many prescription drugs have similar-sounding names. The physician and pharmacist need to be vigilant about ensuring they are not negligent in prescribing or dispensing the wrong medication. You would think this would be rare but name confusion is among the most common causes of prescription errors. A prime example is the confusion between the epilepsy drug Lamictal and antifungal drug Lamisil. About 10 years ago when scores of pharmacies were interchangably filling prescriptions for Lamictal and Lamisil to the point where the FDA and Glaxo were required to send "Dear Doctor" letters advising of the confusion. Usually, there is no significant injury but with the wrong drug or the wrong patient, the injuries can be catastrophic or fatal. With the Lamictal/Lamisil confustion, the possible consequences of this mix-up were severe most for epileptic patients receiving Lamisil were not be able to control seizures. Patients receiving Lamictal by mistake were at risk for less serious side effects such blood pressure problems, rashes, and other troubling but not severe side effects.
  • Adverse effects of medication - Many prescription drugs have side effects that have serious and fatal consequences.  Sometimes these injuries are the regrettable side effects of the medication. 
  • Allergic reaction to medication – A subset of adverse effects, allergic reactions are usually difficult to detect.  But if the prescribing doctor knows or has reason to know of the allergic reaction, often because the allergy is documented, it is a medical mistake that is medical malpractice.

     The improper medication cases in this country that go to trial often tough cases either or negligence or causation.  The best cases for the plaintiffs are improper dosage cases in which, according to Jury Verdict Research, the injury victim prevails 40% of the time at trial.   The most difficult cases for plaintiff’s medication error lawyers to prevail are inappropriate medication cases; plaintiffs prevail in 23% of these cases. 

     With respect to verdicts, the median verdict in medication error cases is $250,000.  But this underscores that a lot of prescription error lawyers are willing to take smaller cases (our law firm only handles serious injury and death cases).  A much different way to look at these numbers is that 60% of medication error cases result in a jury verdict over $1,000,000.

     If you have a prescription error case, call one of medication error lawyers at 800-553-8082 or click here for a free Internet consultation.

See Medical Malpractice in Maryland (overview of medical malpractice in maryland)
See Maryland Medical Malpractice Lawyer Blog (blog regarding malpractice issues)
See New Maryland Case on Loss of Chance of Survival (Anne County OB/GYN case)
See Nursing Home Neglect or Abuse in Maryland (details on nuring home cases)
See Medical Malpractice Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's for malpractice victims)
See Sample Attorney Deposition of Medical Malpractice Doctor (defendant's deposition)
See Sample Attorney Deposition of Defendant Doctor's Medical Expert (defendant's expert)
See Informed Consent in Maryland (what is required for an informed consent case in Maryland)
See Requirements for Certificate of Merit in Maryland Malpractice Cases
See Sample Medical Malpractice Complaint (example Maryland med mal complaint)
See Sample Certificate of Merit (required to file a medical malpractice case in Maryland and many other jurisdictions