What Are My Options After Suffering the Effects of a Medication Error?

All it takes is one simple medication error to cause you significant injuries with adverse side effects. Surviving a medication error may leave you feeling distrustful towards the pharmacist, drug company, or doctor who prescribed you the medicine. You may have had to pay expensive medical bills for the injuries you sustained, not to mention the money you paid for the defective medication itself. 

Depending on how this happened, you might be able to receive compensation through a medical malpractice claim. An experienced Delaware medical malpractice attorney can help you with this.

COMMON TYPES OF MEDICATION ERRORS

There are several ways a medication error can happen. This is relevant for you because you will need to know the type of medication error that caused your injuries. The main types of medication errors include:

• Dosing errors
• Monitoring errors
• Administration errors
• Prescription errors

Dosing errors happen when the wrong dosage is given. Certain medications can come with serious and potentially life-threatening side effects when given at too high of a dose. Monitoring errors are attributed to the failure of a health care worker or doctor to follow-up with patients on the potential effects of the medication. For example, a doctor who fails to schedule a follow-up appointment to check on how a medication is affecting a patient’s liver may be held liable if the patient develops a major liver problem.

Administration errors happen during the technical writing aspects of the medication process. A staff worker or pharmacist may record the medication name or dosage number incorrectly. This is more common with medication names that sound very similar. Prescription errors occur when the doctor fails to account for a patient’s allergies, medical conditions, or the use of other medications could adversely interact with the prescribed drug. 

STEPS IN A MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWSUIT

Your option to seek compensation through a medical malpractice claim requires evidence. Knowing what evidence you need requires a basic understanding of what medical malpractice is based on. Medical malpractice law is based on the establishment of four factors:

• A professional relationship between you and the person who made the medication error.
• A breach in this relationship through a failure to uphold professional standards.
• The relationship between this breach and your injuries.
• What damages you suffered.

You will want to collect evidence like medical records with your doctor’s name or receipts with the pharmacy name. Be sure to obtain a copy of the medical records where you sought medical attention for your injuries. Talk to a lawyer to figure out what other evidence you need. 

MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWYER IN DELAWARE

Proving a medication error can be difficult when you are unsure of what aspect of the medication caused your injuries. Consider hiring a medical malpractice lawyer in Delaware if you find yourself struggling with your claim. Depending on what happened, you could be eligible for significant compensation. Contact Edelstein Martin & Nelson today at (302) 295-5050 for a free consultation. You can find our medical malpractice lawyers in Wilmington, Delaware.