Modern medicine relies heavily on prescription drugs. When medications are prescribed, dispensed, and monitored correctly, they can save lives and improve quality of life. However, when the wrong drug is given, the dose is off, dangerous combinations are prescribed, or a pharmacy misfills a prescription the results can be catastrophic. Patients can suffer strokes, internal bleeding, organ failure, allergic reactions, or death from errors that never should have happened.
Medication mistakes can occur at several points in the chain of care. A doctor might choose an inappropriate drug for a patient’s age or medical history, fail to adjust dosage for kidney or liver problems, or ignore obvious drug interactions. Nurses may administer medications to the wrong patient or at the wrong time. Pharmacies can misread handwriting, confuse similar drug names, or dispense the wrong strength. Once the drug is in your system, failing to monitor for known side effects or respond to early warning signs can turn a correctable problem into a permanent injury. It may be that the drug itself was defective and dangerous.
When Jeff Carey investigates a medication or pharmacy error case, he traces the path of the prescription from start to finish. We review doctor’s orders, medication administration records, pharmacy logs, lab results, and nursing notes. We ask whether the prescriber followed basic safeguards, whether the pharmacy met its obligations to verify and double-check, and whether the hospital or nursing home had systems in place to catch errors before they reached the patient. Working with qualified medical and pharmacy experts, we evaluate whether the injury you suffered was the result of negligence rather than an unavoidable reaction.