You rely on your prescription medication to treat your illnesses, injuries, and other ailments. For as much good as prescription medication can do, though, just as much harm can be done if you are prescribed the wrong medication. Doctors need to be aware of the dangers that the wrong medication can cause and prescribe drugs and dosages very carefully.
If your doctor’s negligence caused you to get the wrong prescription medication, then you should come to Kaire & Heffernan to explore your rights as an injured patient. Our lawyers represent clients in Miami in all manners of medical malpractice claims, including incorrect prescription medication claims.
How Do the Wrong Medications Get Prescribed?
Accepted medical standards require all medical professionals to act deliberately at all times, especially when dealing with something that affects a patient’s health. How can it be that your doctor prescribed you the wrong prescription medication, leading to serious side effects, then? As is often uncovered, the truth is a doctor’s small lapse in judgment for only a moment is what leads to a major mistake that triggers severe or lifelong consequences.
Three mistakes that might lead to the wrong prescription medication are:
- Diagnosis errors: In order for a prescription medication to be safe and effective, it needs to be used by a patient with a health condition that can actually benefit from the drug. Using a prescription that is not meant to treat what is afflicting you can be dangerous. When a doctor misdiagnoses your condition based on a misinterpretation of your symptoms, they might prescribe you an ineffective and potentially dangerous medication.
- Incorrect medication: Each year, dozens of new medications are developed, reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and sent to the market for prescription use, where they join thousands of others already on the market. Big Pharma companies usually try to put a friendly, inviting twist on the brand names of their prescription medications to deter patients from feeling intimidating by the drug. The end result can be a long list of pharmaceuticals with similar names but dissimilar purposes. If your doctor prescribed you the wrong medication, then it is quite possible they got the drug’s brand name confused for another.
- Unclear prescription: Everyone seems to have a story about how their doctor wrote a prescription for them that looked like nothing more than a scribble on the piece of paper. As humorous as these stories might seem, they actually reveal a serious problem within the medical industry: unclear prescriptions. If the bad handwriting of your doctor confused your pharmacist but not enough to the point where they felt they had to double-check the prescription with your doctor, then you could be given the wrong prescription medication entirely. In such a situation, some liability would likely fall on your pharmacist, too, not just your doctor.Drug Interactions & Other Wrong Prescription HazardsWhen you take the wrong prescription medicine unknowingly, there is no way to know for certain what complications will arise. Different drugs affect people in different ways, which is why doctors need to be so careful when selecting prescription medicines for their patients. Prescription drugs may even interact with one another unpredictably, triggering side effects that would not be experienced if the drugs were taken separately.Serious side effects caused by taking incorrect prescriptions could include:
- Dizziness
- Shortness of breath
- Abnormal blood pressure
- Migraines
- Fatigue
- Body aches
- Fainting
- Heart failureOur Miami Medical Malpractice attorneys believe that there is never an excuse for a medication error caused by a medical professional. If you were given the wrong prescription and have since suffered serious health consequences because of it, then we want to hear from you to see how we can help. We offer free consultations and there is never a fee unless we win your case.
Mark Kaire has been practicing law in Miami for nearly 30 years. He is dedicated to helping the injured people of Miami receive compensation. Mr. Kaire has been blogging on Miami’s legal issues for many years.