You trust your doctor with your life and rightly so – it is a doctor’s duty to do what’s in your best interest and look out for your wellbeing while you’re in his or her care. That’s why when you or a loved one is injured or killed due to medical malpractice, the ensuing legal battle is difficult and emotional.
Medical negligence comes in many shapes and forms, from nurse inattention to prescribing the wrong medication. If a doctor fails to provide his or her patient with the correct medication, and harm comes to the patient because of it, it could be worth the time and expense of going to court to file a lawsuit against the doctor.
Ways in Which a Doctor Can Make a Medicine Mistake
“Prescribing the wrong medication” doesn’t just mean your prescription was mixed up with another patient’s prescription. There are several ways in which a doctor can be responsible for wrong medication, including:
- Wrong dosage
- Incorrect ingestion instructions
- Wrong duration of time needed to take the medication
- Prescribing a medication the patient is allergic to
- Prescribing a medication that has adverse reactions with others the patient is taking
- Prescribing a medication that will cause harm to the patient’s other medical conditions
- Prescribing an ineffective medication that doesn’t help the problem
- Failing to relay possible side effects of the medication
Medication-related mistakes can be made at many points throughout the timeframe of a medication, including during its manufacture, delivery, when it is prescribed, and when it is taken. However, if a patient is injured because a medication was incorrectly or carelessly prescribed, the responsibility lies with the doctor, not the manufacturer of the drug.
Even while these mistakes are just that – accidental mistakes – when they affect the lives of patients in a negative way, they can cause permanent personal injury, worsening conditions, or wrongful death. Therefore, the doctor can be liable for the mistake, even if it was purely accidental. There is no need to prove a doctor’s intent to harm the patient to sue for medical malpractice.
As many as 98,000 people are killed yearly in the United States due to some form of medical malpractice. Thousands of patients are being admitted to understaffed hospitals, so it’s no surprise that negligence and oversights occur. However, that doesn’t mean you have to accept being the victim of one. A doctor prescribing the wrong mediation can have deadly consequences, and the responsible party deserves to be prosecuted for the negligence or carelessness that led to it.
What Are My Options If Prescribed the Wrong Medication?
While lawsuits concerning medical malpractice can be complex and take a long time in the court system, it’s worth it to receive compensation for the damages you or a loved one has suffered because of the doctor’s negligence.
If you believe your doctor prescribed the wrong medication and you were harmed because of it, consult a malpractice attorney immediately. In the state of Kansas, a patient has two years to file a lawsuit against a health care provider for a medical malpractice case, known as the statute of limitations. That deadline is extended to four years in the event you couldn’t have reasonably known you were harmed by the malpractice in the first two years. The sooner you speak with a Kansas City medical malpractice lawyer about your case, the better off you’ll be in terms of case recognition, compensation, and beginning your journey toward healing.
Contact a Kansas City Medical Malpractice Attorney
The wrong medication can cause physical injury, but it has an emotional toll, as well. The trust you had with your caregiver is broken, and your physical health could be worse off because of it. In the terrible event that someone you know has died because a doctor prescribed the wrong medication, contact us right away. The attorneys at Dickerson Oxton, LLC are passionate about defending victims of medical malpractice and can provide you with the legal guidance you need during this difficult time.
Source:
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/my-doctor-prescribed-the-wrong-medication-is-malpractice.html