Prescription Drug Lawsuits
Medical malpractice happens when a medical professional causes harm to a patient by way of poor choices regarding care options. This includes prescribing or using the wrong medications to treat a specific condition. Medical malpractice concerning prescription medications may be difficult to prove in court. Injury victims will be required to show that the prescription they received caused harm and that the harm could have been avoided if the prescription was not issued.
Types of Malpractice Related to Prescription Medications
There are many ways in which wrongly prescribed medication can be shown to be malpractice. The most common ways patients are injured by prescriptions include:
- Your doctor prescribes the right medication, but the dosage is incorrect
- The method to take the medication is incorrect, which led to injury or harm
- The doctor prescribes a medication that contains an ingredient to which the patient is known to be allergic and it causes a serious reaction
- The doctor prescribes the medication for the wrong length of time
- The doctor prescribes a medication that causes adverse reactions in combination with medications the patient is already taking
- The doctor prescribes a medication that harmfully interacts with naturally occurring physical conditions of the patient
- The doctor prescribes the wrong medication and the patient’s condition worsens from lack of care
It should be understood that these are not the only occasions where malpractice could occur concerning prescription medications. To determine if a medication that your doctor prescribed has caused you harm and the doctor is the responsible party, you will need to have your case carefully reviewed by a medical malpractice attorney.
Contributing Factors
The reason that it can be difficult for your medical malpractice attorney to prove this type of case is that there are a lot of people making up the chain of command concerning prescription medications. Who may actually be the ones at fault can be difficult to pin down.
For example, a drug manufacturer may not have released all of the information about the side effects of their drug, and those side effects are what caused your injury. A nurse or pharmacist may have dispensed the wrong medication. A patient may also be partially at fault if they do not disclose their allergies or all of their medical conditions.
Proving Prescription Related Medical Malpractice
Pharmaceutical-company-related malpractice cases can be harder to prove than standard malpractice suits. However, harder does not mean that it is impossible. To successfully prosecute a case, the attorney must:
Establish what the medical profession would consider the standard of care for the condition you were being treated for at the time of the alleged malpractice
Prove that your doctor deviated from that Standard of Care
Show the injuries you received because of that deviation
Your medical malpractice attorney will rely on expert witnesses and testimony from people within the medical field to establish the correct standard of care for your condition. Through this information, the attorney will also be able to establish how the doctor deviated from that care level and how it injured you.
Once all of this information has clearly been discovered and entered as evidence, your attorney will seek damages on your behalf for your injuries and related financial losses that resulted from the doctor or institution’s faulty medical care. Your attorney may ask for additional forms of compensation, such as pain and suffering if the laws of your state allow injury victims to make this type of claim. Your attorney will explain to you, based on the facts of your specific case, what types of compensation you will receive as a result of being a victim of medical malpractice.