Medication Errors

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Pittsburgh Medication Error Attorneys

Whether the wrong medication was prescribed or given to the patient, the wrong dose administered, or allergies overlooked / ignored, errors involving the use of medications can have tragic consequences. A medical malpractice attorney with experience in medication error cases can help you get the answers and justice you deserve.

Medication Malpractice FAQ

Common Medication Errors

Physicians and nurses are often distracted by constant demands and multiple responsibilities. Today’s health care providers are still prone to make mistakes when ordering, prescribing or administering medications. The following is a list of general and common types of drug related errors which can harm patients:

  • Ordering the wrong drug
  • Ordering an excessive dose of a drug
  • Ordering multiple medications with the potential for harmful interaction
  • Ordering or prescribing medications too close together in time
  • Failing to monitor a patient’s reaction to opioids, especially in those who are opioid naïve
  • Failing to recognize drug allergies or contraindications, such as liver or kidney impairment

If you believe that a doctor or other health care professional made an error in prescribing or administering medication, which resulted in significant harm – we encourage you to contact our Pittsburgh medical malpractice law firm for a free case evaluation.

Potentially Harmful Medications

Some medication errors cause more harm than others. Just like other forms of medical errors, a preventable medication error must result in serious and permanent injury or death to justify the costs and challenges of filing a medical malpractice lawsuit. Errors involving several commonly prescribed medications are more likely to harm patients, given the medical conditions these medications are designed to treat or prevent, the potential for dangerous side effects, or a combination of these threats. A seasoned attorney in Pittsburgh could explain how threats could affect the patient long term.

Conditions Caused By Medication Errors

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While underlying conditions like immobility, cancer, surgery, or genetic predispositions increase clotting risk, medication errors play a major role in preventable cases of thromboembolism. 

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Certain drugs are toxic to the kidneys, particularly when improperly prescribed, administered in the wrong dose, or given without regard for the patient’s renal function. 

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One of the most common and preventable causes of hemorrhage and stroke is inappropriate use of anticoagulant medications, such as warfarin (Coumadin), heparin, and newer direct oral anticoagulants.

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In a hospital setting, medication-induced arrhythmias can result from overdoses, harmful drug interactions, electrolyte mismanagement, or improper use of anesthesia and cardiac drugs.

Guidance From Health Care Institutions

Healthcare providers are well aware of the enormous threats posed by medication errors. Patient safety organizations like the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion work to identify the most common mistakes related to medications and find ways to prevent such needless harm from occurring over and over again. ISMP recently identified some of the most persistent yet preventable medical errors involving medications that cause serious harm or death to patients. Such errors include:

  • Choosing the wrong medication because its label looks the same as the correct medication;
  • Nurses administering the wrong medication due to misheard verbal or telephone communication;
  • Removing medications from automated distribution cabinets without a pharmacist reviewing the order, and often, without review by a physician as well.

Another frequent preventable medication error cited by ISMP involves a drug called tranexamic acid. Tranexamic acid is normally used to prevent heavy menstrual or post-operative bleeding. Too many patients are dying during common procedures like setting a broken bone or child birth because their spines were injected with tranexamic acid instead of an anesthetic to control pain. Many of these tragic deaths are caused when health care personnel either misread a label or confuse the glass capsule, called an ampoule, containing tranexamic acid with that containing the anesthetic based on their similar size and appearance. A diligent attorney in Pittsburgh could use the medication guidance from healthcare experts to build a claimant’s case for a liability case.

Lawsuits Based On Medication Error

The attorneys of Lupetin & Unatin have uncovered medication errors as the root cause of many medical malpractice lawsuits. Investigation of a medical malpractice lawsuit involving a medication error often begins by gaining an understanding of the cause of injury or death. Clues can be found in the results of tests coinciding with the time of injury or death such as toxicology reports, microbiology reports, or bloodwork.

In some cases, identifying a medication error as the cause of harm is like placing pieces of a puzzle. There may be no test to directly connect the death or specific injury with a medication error. Nevertheless, evaluation of the patient’s medical history, medical treatment prior to the time of injury or death, and the physiologic mechanism of harm often leads us to discover a medication error as the source of the injury or death in question.

Our attorneys discover many cases based on the failure to monitor patients for known medication side effects. Hospital staff may administer the correct dosage of medication in a safe manner, yet they frequently fail to recognize or respond when dangerous side effects arise. Dangerous side effects of medication could come in the form of a life-threatening allergic reaction, anaphylaxis or respiratory depression or arrest.

When a monitor shows worsening vital signs just minutes after a patient receives medication known to cause respiratory depression, yet nobody is aware of the problem until a nurse finds the patient non-responsive and without a palpable pulse, somebody made a mistake.

This scenario occurs too frequently, often because somebody changed the setting on the patient’s vital sign monitor to prevent an alarm from sounding or silenced the alarm altogether. In some cases, nurses are busy taking care of other patients and nobody responds to an audible alarm. Such preventable harm related to an adverse drug reaction should never occur.

When a patient dies in spite of timely diagnosis and treatment of pulmonary embolism, we focus on whether that patient was properly managed with heparin. If the heart rate, blood pressure, and respirations in a patient sedated on Benzodiazepines are abruptly abnormal moments before the patient is found in cardiopulmonary arrest, we look to the record identifying when each and every medication was administered and the dosage for clues to what went wrong and how. And if a patient dies from scarring of his lungs only months after starting a new medication to control an irregular heartbeat, our suspicion turns to whether pulmonary fibrosis, a known side effect of the medication, could have been prevented with earlier monitoring and discontinuance of the medication. Our law firm has dealt with each of the above scenarios while representing people whose lives were changed forever due to a medication error. If you need to find out whether you or a loved one were seriously harmed by a preventable medication error, please contact us.

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