Not everyone realizes it, but when doctors recommend the wrong prescriptions to their patients, it is a form of medical malpractice. After all, prescription errors can cause serious, and even deadly, consequences for those who take the wrong drugs. Read on to find out when it is appropriate to hire a Prescription Error Lawyer in Bedford to help with filing a malpractice suit.
Prescription of the Wrong Drug
The most obvious reason to file a drug-related malpractice suit is when a physician prescribes an inappropriate and potentially harmful medication. Often these mistakes are due to pure negligence on the part of the physician, who may have mixed up the patient’s file with someone else’s, or may have simply failed to consider the patient’s unique medical history and situation in his or her haste.
Incorrect Dosage
Many prescription drugs are helpful when taken in the right dosages, but harmful and even potentially fatal when they are overprescribed. Any patient who has been prescribed his or her medications in the wrong dosage and suffered from serious consequences, as a result, should contact a lawyer. One tragically common example is the prescription of high levels of blood pressure medications, which leads to dangerously low heart rates in patients.
Wrong Administration Method
Patients who suffer from severe side effects due to being prescribed medications in the wrong form can also file malpractice suits. One example is the prescription of medication in tablet form that should have been administered via an inhaler due to the presence of serious side effects when it is ingested orally.
Incorrect Duration of Use
If a physician prescribes the correct medication but does not give the patient enough of it to complete his or her treatment accordingly, it can have disastrous consequences. For example, if a physician places his or her patient on antibiotics to fight a bacterial infection, but the prescription only lasts for half as long as it is intended to last, it can lead to the formation of antibiotic resistance and cause patients more harm than good.
Inadequate Identification of Side Effects
Many otherwise helpful medications produce harmful interactions when they are taken with other prescription or over-the-counter drugs, while others have harmful effects in patients suffering from certain conditions. If a doctor has failed to adequately consult a patient’s medical history, he or she should contact a Prescription Error Lawyer in Bedford. know more about us online.
