Attorney for Patients Given the Wrong Medication
Pharmaceutical drugs are strong medications which can be life-saving if administered correctly, but they can also be deadly or cause serious harm if they are given to the wrong patient. The pharmaceutical-medical industrial complex is a fast-growing industry and the number-one profiting industry in the United States.
The increase of pharmaceutical drug use has increased tremendously in recent years, which has unfortunately also led to an increased risk of medication errors. Doctors are prescribing, even over-prescribing, more medications to patients than ever before and sadly, larger numbers of medications are administered to the wrong patients.
If you or a loved one’s life and health have been put at risk by being given medication that wasn’t meant for you, you are entitled to seek compensation from the parties responsible for your injuries and/or losses. Call the experiencedlawyers at Crowe & Harris, LLP today so we can help you to move towards recovery.
Why You Need a Lawyer
Going up against teams of representatives from perhaps the most powerful industrial complex in the country can be a daunting prospect. Don’t go it alone. Seeking damages for your injuries will be a difficult task and it is best to hire an expert who is familiar with the complex Massachusetts legal system.
If you or a loved one has suffered health complications from being given a medication that was meant for someone else, you will have to prove negligence on the part of your medical provider. The medical industry is strongly incentivized to protect their interests.
You will also need to carefully choose the amount of compensation you desire. Asking too little may end up leaving you with outstanding debt from your medical costs, and asking too much may motivate a judge or jury to dismiss your case altogether. An expert attorney will be able to properly calculate your damages and ask for the right amount.
A professional attorney will also be able to handle all communication with the medical and insurance representatives so that you can avoid agreeing to something unfair or get tricked into saying something that will benefit their case and hurt your claim. An attorney can also negotiate on your behalf so that you don’t have to face them personally while still in your condition.
Holding the medical-pharmaceutical industry accountable for their negligence will not only help you and your family, but will address the dangerous practices that are used in assembly line-like facilities that treat patients and their procedures as commodities. Seeking justice will aid in improving our community’s healthcare system and help to prevent future similar problems. A professional attorney will help you and your community get the fair and just treatment that we all deserve.
Why Choose Us?
The entire team at Crowe & Harris, LLP assists in each client’s case and pride ourselves on client satisfaction. Our dedicated professionals are nationally recognized and are determined that every client receive the compensation and justice that he or she is entitled to.
Our team of medication error lawyers will analyze your case to determine any negligence by health professionals, or identify substandard policies concerning medication on the part of the facility. We will investigate all potential causes of the error, including prescribing, transcribing, administering, monitoring and records keeping errors. Our team includes nurses with medical experience as well as experienced medication error evaluators.
Our skilled attorneys will thoroughly evaluate the details of your case to determine liability. There may be have been multiple failures of the staff and facility that led to the mistake. You can rely on our expert professionals to get to the bottom of the problem and hold the parties accountable who are responsible for giving a drug to you or your loved one that wasn’t meant for you.
The Crowe & Harris, LLP attorneys will calculate the damages of your losses due to their error. We will consider all additional medical expenses, extended hospitals stays, pain and suffering, lost wages, and other associated costs, and will work tirelessly to get you every dime that you deserve.
We will communicate and negotiate with any insurance or healthcare representatives on your behalf, and take on the legal burden of holding the industry accountable and seeking compensation, while you recover.
The compassionate attorneys at Crowe & Harris, LLP understand the financial stress and anxiety about your condition. We take the time to listen to your story, take your phone calls and answer all of your questions. Most importantly, we will fight for you every step of the way until you are satisfied with your compensation and can focus on your recovery.
Cases We Handle
Our team at Crowe & Harris, LLP have a century of collective experience. We have handled a diversity of types of cases in representing injured victims – not corporations – in Massachusetts and the New England area. We are comfortable at the negotiating table and in the courtroom.
We have had great success in representing the following types of cases, one of which may fit the circumstances of your case, if you or a loved one was mistakenly given medication that was intended for a different patient:
- Wrongful death – Massachusetts law provides that a person or company may be liable for wrongful death if the person or company causes the death of another by negligence, or by failing to exercise reasonable care.
- Personal injury – As a Massachusetts resident, you have a right to receive compensation for the losses you suffered or continue to suffer from a personal injury that another person or company is responsible for causing.
- Medical malpractice – In Massachusetts, medical malpractice occurs when a healthcare professional breaches or violates the standard of care when treating a patient.
Our team of lawyers and nurses meet together to discuss the progress of each case to maximize recovery for each injured client. If you or a loved one was given a dangerous drug that wasn’t meant for you and you were injured or lost a loved one, we can take on the legal burden for you while you recover from the adverse effects of the drug that you were mistakenly given.
ADVERSE DRUG EVENTS
Perhaps the most dangerous risk of being prescribed medications that weren’t intended for you are the extreme adverse side effects that strong drugs can cause. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) monitors adverse drug events, or ADEs, across the country and has released the following alarming statistics about these events:
- ADEs cause about 1.3 million emergency room visits and 350,000 hospitalizations every year.
- $3.5 billion is spent annually on additional medical costs due to ADEs.
- Over 40 percent of the costs related to non-hospital ADEs might be preventable.
- 82 percent of adults in the United States take at least one prescribed medication.
- 29 percent of US adults take five or more medications.
The mere thought of being given a drug that is unknown to you and was meant for someone else is terrifying to even think about. The damage that it could inflict on your body could leave you or your loved one dead or with serious medical complications. if this has happened to you or a loved one and was the result of the health provider’s mistake or negligence, then don’t hesitate to call the capable lawyers at Crowe & Harris, LLP to discuss and investigate your case.
How Medications Are Given to the Wrong Patient
Calls within the field of medicine to improve the patient verification process is telling of a widespread problem and risks of errors.in administering medications to the wrong patients. “Wrong patient” medication errors can occur for a variety of reasons at any point in the patient encounter or during any phase of the prescription-to-use process.
The National Institutes of Health describes the following possible reasons that medications could be given to the wrong patient, under several different categories of errors:
- Prescribing errors occur when an order is inadvertently entered into the electronic system or when the prescribing physician is using the wrong patient data.
- Transcription errors happen when telephone prescription orders get mistranscribed or when patient labels get intermingled together.
- Dispensation errors become more common when mistakes are made during data entry or when drug deliveries are coupled together and get confused.
- Administration errors happen due to reliance on verbal confirmation of the correct name, perhaps over the phone, instead of checking with the record. They also occur with automated systems override records systems electronically. Additionally, medication administration records can simply get mixed up.
- Monitoring errors occur most commonly when monitoring results get confused.
Because these errors have become too common, the Joint Commission National Patient Safety now aims to improve the accuracy of patient identification by requiring health care practitioners to use at least two patient identifiers (not the patient’s room number or location) when providing care, treatment, and services.
Contact Us
Our understanding team cares about your financial and physical health. Recovering from the consequences of a medication error is emotionally and physically tasking. Allow our attorneys to navigate the complex legal system on your behalf. At Crowe & Harris, LLP , we have experienced, compassionate, and aggressive medication error attorneys who know how to make your case as strong as possible.
Don’t hesitate to take advantage of the resources and experience of our medication error attorneys for the best chance at being awarded the maximum amount of damages.
