At John Price Law Firm, LLC, our prescription error attorneys represent individuals in Charleston and throughout South Carolina who have been injured by the negligence of medical professionals. We are here to answer your questions, explain your legal rights and help you pursue fair compensation.
Our lawyers are compassionate advocates for our clients, yet aggressive toward other parties who need to be held accountable for their harmful actions.
Frequent Types Of Medication Errors
Prescription drug mistakes affect countless people every year, and they occur for many reasons. Here are just a few potential examples:
- A physician fails to pay attention to the patient’s history of drug allergies.
- A psychiatrist prescribes the wrong drug or one that interacts dangerously with other medications.
- A nurse confuses the decimal points and administers an overdose or does not administer enough.
- A pharmacist dispenses a certain medication to the wrong patient.
Who Is Responsible For Prescription Drug Errors?
Fault can be found with anyone who is a part of the chain of prescribing or administering medications. This can include pharmacists, hospitals, doctors, nurses and even the pharmaceutical manufacturer.
Errors In Administering Medications
Doctors and nurses can be held liable for prescribing or administering the incorrect medication. This could include simply making a mistake with the dosage to be prescribed. Simply missing or transposing a decimal point, as well, could mean the patient receives 100 times too little or too much of the medication. In some cases a nurse injects the medication in the wrong part of the body. And in others, a simple case of bad handwriting can mean a patient received the wrong medication.
Mislabeling Medication
Sometimes a medication can be mislabeled either before it ever leaves the manufacturer or at the pharmacy. This means a patient would receive the wrong medication or a wrong dosage. If it is found that the pharmaceutical manufacturer is at fault, this may result in a product liability lawsuit. If the pharmacist is found at fault, then a medical malpractice suit would be brought.
Prescribing Medications That Are Harmful
It is a pharmacist’s job to make sure any medication being prescribed will not have a harmful interaction with medication to the patient is already on or will not affect a patient’s known allergies.
Failure To Warn Of Possible Side Effects
Doctors, nurses and pharmacists prescribing medication have the responsibility of informing the patient of common side effects, as well as what to avoid when taking that medication.
Our lawyers are compassionate advocates for our clients, yet aggressive toward other parties who need to be held accountable for their harmful actions. Prescription errors can leave an individual with serious, long-term complications and financial hardships. At John Price Law Firm, our prescription error attorneys have the knowledge and expertise needed to go up against the malpractice insurance companies.
