Westland Pharmaceutical Errors Attorneys

Experienced Westland Injury Lawyers Fight for Those Harmed by Mistakes in Dispensing Medication

When most people think of medical malpractice errors, they envision a surgeon operating on the wrong body part or a doctor failing to diagnose an aggressive form of cancer. However, surgeons and physicians aren’t the only medical professionals who may make dangerous mistakes. Many medications that are beneficial for some patients and conditions are hazardous or even deadly for others. Dosage mistakes can change the effectiveness of a drug or cause severe complications.

Currently, about 6,800 prescription medications are available in the United States. Countless over-the-counter medications, health supplements, herbs, and other items are available and largely unregulated. These over-the-counter medications, supplements, and other substances can also interact with prescription medications. Overlooking potential interactions with a patient’s other drugs or supplements can also lead to injury or death.

If you’ve been harmed by a pharmacy or hospital medication error, consult an experienced Westland pharmaceutical errors attorney. The team at Sommers Schwartz, P.C. is here to help.

Types of Pharmaceutical Errors

A pharmaceutical error is any preventable mistake that results in a patient suffering harm from receiving the wrong medication or misusing medication. Common examples of pharmaceutical mistakes include:

• A doctor prescribing the wrong medication or dose.
• A doctor or pharmacist failing to explain a drug’s risks and benefits to a patient so the patient can make an informed decision.
• A drug company making mistakes in creating a medication, such as adding too much or too little of an active ingredient, mislabeling a product, or allowing contamination.
• A communication problem between a provider and a pharmacy.
• A pharmacist making a mistake in compounding or dispensing a drug or explaining to a patient how to use the medication.
• A hospital nurse dispensing the wrong medication, the wrong dose of medication, or dispensing medication at the wrong time (too early or too late).

Every person in the chain between a drug’s production and its administration to a patient is responsible for taking appropriate steps to prevent pharmaceutical errors. For example, a doctor may mistakenly order the wrong dose of a medication, but a pharmacist acting with proper care may catch the mistake. When no one catches an error before the medication reaches the patient, the patient can suffer serious injuries.

It’s important to note that a lawsuit to recover damages caused by pharmaceutical errors is only possible when one or more medical professionals make a preventable mistake. An allergic reaction or another adverse outcome after taking a medication isn’t typically a sufficient legal basis for a pharmaceutical error claim.

Injuries Caused by Pharmaceutical Errors

Drug manufacturers, healthcare professionals, and patients submit over 100,000 reports of suspected pharmaceutical errors annually to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Common serious injuries that occur because of a pharmaceutical error include:

• Birth defects. Some medications pose serious risks to a developing fetus. One well-known example is thalidomide, which was once prescribed to pregnant women in Europe and Canada to control nausea. Unfortunately, the drug causes serious issues with fetal development and led to many severe birth injuries. Today, prescribing thalidomide to a pregnant patient is an example of a serious pharmaceutical error.
• Permanent disabilities. Some medications have long-term harmful effects on the body or increase the risk of other conditions. For example, prescribing medications that affect blood clotting requires careful, ongoing patient health monitoring. The wrong dose of clotting medicines could result in a blood clot that cuts off circulation to a limb or part of the brain, leaving the patient with lifelong problems.
• Life-threatening situations and hospitalization. A drug interaction or a medication that should not be prescribed for patients with certain conditions can result in a life-threatening medical situation. These patients may require hospitalization to recover from the harm caused by a preventable mistake. For example, too many serotonin-acting medications or doses that are too high may cause serotonin syndrome, a potentially fatal condition.
• Death. The most egregious pharmaceutical errors cause patient deaths. About 8,000 people die in the United States each year due to preventable medication errors.

Prescription errors can occur in many ways while dispensing a medication to a patient. For example:

• Handwritten prescriptions are a common cause of errors because they can be difficult to read, while electronic prescriptions may contain other errors or typos.
• Improper charting or failing to read a patient’s chart may cause a provider to miss information about the patient’s other medications, response to past medications, laboratory test results, and allergies.
• The wrong medication, dose, or medication schedule may be prescribed.
• Some drugs have names that sound very similar, making a mistake more likely when prescriptions are transmitted verbally. Similarly, medications with names that vary by only one or two letters may get mixed up when pharmacists fill the prescriptions.

Recognizing the dangers associated with medication errors, the FDA and other agencies work to prevent pharmaceutical mistakes whenever possible. For instance, the FDA sets guidelines for creating brand names, designing container labels, and giving providers, pharmacists, and patients the information they need to understand what a drug does, how to use it properly, and the risks associated with its use.

Compensation After a Westland Pharmaceutical Error Injury

The costs of pharmaceutical errors run high. One study estimates that the total cost of caring for patients who suffer medication error injuries is over $40 billion each year. This price tag includes costs such as:

• Medical bills for treating problems caused by pharmaceutical errors. For patients who suffer permanent disabilities due to the error, the costs also include all the bills related to their disability. Medical expenses may include hospital bills, surgical bills, rehabilitation and therapy, and mileage to doctor’s appointments.
• Lost wages when patients cannot work while recovering from the effects of a preventable pharmaceutical error. If a medication error causes permanent disabilities, these lost wages may cover the rest of the injured person’s ordinary working life.
• Costs of additional care such as in-home nursing or assistive services. While not everyone affected by a pharmaceutical error needs intensive in-home help, patients who do typically face steep costs to secure the care they need.

In addition to the financial cost, patients injured by pharmaceutical errors and their families also face mental, emotional, and social costs. These costs are not easily calculated from bills or receipts but are just as real. These “non-economic” costs include

• Pain and suffering caused by the medical issues that result from exposure to the wrong type or dose of medication.
• Mental and emotional anguish connected to the injury itself and its broader effects on a person’s life, such as the inability to work or do other activities the person once enjoyed.
• Disability, disfigurement, and scarring resulting from the pharmaceutical error or its direct medical effects.
• Distrust of doctors and pharmacists or fear of taking more medication that can cause the injured person to fear seeking medical attention for future needs.

In a pharmaceutical errors claim, an injured person works with their experienced medication errors attorney to clarify the full scope of their damages. They can then pursue compensation from all negligent parties who made the mistake or negligently failed to prevent the error.

Pharmaceutical error claims in Michigan are often treated as medical malpractice claims. Medical malpractice claims follow specific rules that do not apply to other types of personal injury claims in Michigan. These include unique time limits and special notice requirements that plaintiffs must meet before filing a lawsuit.

In addition, Michigan law “caps,” or limits, non-economic damages (like pain and suffering) in medical malpractice cases. The state’s law contains an “upper” and a “lower” cap. Many injured people struggle to prove to an insurance company, hospital, or healthcare provider that the upper cap applies to their case.

The best way to proceed with any pharmaceutical error claim is to consult an experienced Westland medication error lawyer as soon as possible. An attorney can help you preserve evidence, build a strong claim, and fight for the full, fair compensation you deserve.

Talk to an Experienced Westland Pharmaceutical Error Attorney Today

A pharmaceutical error often causes a significant decline in the health and quality of a patient’s life. The injured person may find their original condition does not resolve or gets worse while they struggle to deal with new medical conditions caused by the mistaken treatment.

If this sounds familiar, you don’t have to fight alone. The dedicated Westland pharmaceutical error attorneys at Sommers Schwartz, P.C. will help you hold the negligent parties accountable. We’ve helped many clients fight for fair compensation after a pharmaceutical error that caused a medication injury. We’ll answer your questions and help you chart a path forward. Contact us today to schedule a free, confidential case evaluation with one of our skilled and compassionate Westland pharmaceutical error lawyers.