Medication Errors

Medication errors are the most common medical negligence errors occurring in hospitals. There are over 1.5 million cases reported each year, and these are just the cases that have been discovered and reported. On average, every hospitalized patient encounters at least one medication error each day in the United States.

While most of the time, these medication errors do not result in any noticeable harm or injury, sometimes they do. Our law offices have experienced many medication error cases, including those involving a build-up of Demerol in patients, due to doctor miscommunication, that ultimately lead to the death of the patients. Other cases of medication errors resulted from patients incorrectly receiving heparin, a blood thinner, which can result in a serious injury to the brain, if the patients weren’t in the proper medical condition to receive this medication.

How do you know if a medication error occurred?

Evidence of a medication error can often be discovered by the administration of a corrective medication, such as administering Protamine to reverse the effects of an overdose of Heparin, or giving Narcan to counter the effects of an overdose of narcotic pain medications. We had a case involving a young person who died from a routine appendectomy, because the doctors and nurses miscommunicated about which medications to give this person for his pain.

A qualified medical malpractice attorney, who specializes in medication errors can thoroughly investigate the medical records of a patient to determine if the patient was administered the wrong drug or too high of a dosage of a drug. Bruce Fagel is both a medical malpractice lawyer and a licensed medical doctor. The medical background gives Dr. Fagel the experience necessary to discover where a medication error occurred and the ability to examine the medical records for errors. If the patient died from medication errors, an autopsy may be available to examine as well. Hospital staff are taught how to put as little information as possible in the patient’s chart, but instead, complete a detailed form which goes to the hospital attorney, thus, making it much more difficult for an inexperienced attorney to discover the error. Again, a medical malpractice attorney who is also a licensed medical doctor gives the patient or the patients’ family a knowledgeable resource to find out exactly how the patient was injured or died.