Baltimore Medication & Pharmaceutical Errors Lawyer
Patients rely on medications prescribed to them to recover from an injury or illness. When they are given the wrong dose or the wrong medication, it can result in very serious injuries. Not only may the medication make a person sick, but they also will not receive the proper medicine they need. Pharmaceutical negligence, as well as mistakes made by healthcare professionals such as doctors and nurses can easily result in a medication error. If you have been hurt by these types of mistakes, it is important to speak to a Baltimore medication & pharmaceutical errors lawyer that can advise you of your legal options.
Common Medication and Pharmaceutical Errors
Hospitals, pharmacies, and doctors’ offices are very busy environments and the professionals working within them often suffer from high stress levels. This can result in medication mistakes caused by mixing up medicines that have similar names, miscommunication, and illegible handwriting. The most common medication and pharmaceutical errors are as follows:
- Not reading prescriptions properly: Prescriptions are sometimes not read properly because of a doctor’s illegible handwriting or because a pharmacist was simply too busy to read the prescription carefully.
- Mixing up prescriptions: Pharmacists often become very busy and when they do, they may accidentally mix up medications and give the wrong medicine to the wrong patient. Pharmacists may also make a mistake when distributing the drug, such as including the wrong dosage.
- Contraindications: Contraindications involve circumstances in which a patient cannot receive a certain type of drug because it could cause them harm, such as when they are allergic to a specific medication. If doctors do not take a full review of the patient’s history to determine if a drug is safe, it can result in medical malpractice, including a medication error.
- Failure to instruct or warn: Patients should always be given instructions about how to take the drug, as well as be warned of any side effects it may cause. When they do not receive these instructions, it can result in very serious harm.
- Misdiagnosis: When doctors fail to diagnose a condition properly, they may prescribe a drug that causes a condition to worsen, or that does not properly treat the ailment.
Injuries Caused by Medication and Pharmaceutical Errors
Taking the wrong drug or the wrong dosage of drug, will do much more than just make a person tired. A medication error can result in catastrophic injuries, including:
- Stroke
- Heart attack
- Organ damage
- Internal bleeding
- Nerve damage
- Wrongful death
The above injuries may cause you to miss work or make you unable to enjoy the things you once did, and that is unfair. A Baltimore medical malpractice lawyer can help you obtain damages for your injuries that can help with your recovery so your life can return to normal as soon as possible.
Our Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Baltimore Can Provide the Help You Need
After a medication error, the insurance company may not want to settle your claim, or they may refuse to pay you the full damages you deserve. At Wais, Vogelstein, Forman, Koch & Norman, LLC, our Baltimore medical malpractice lawyers will negotiate aggressively to ensure your rights are upheld and you receive the full compensation you deserve. Call us today at 410-998-3600 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.
