Pharmacy Malpractice Lawyers – Medication Errors
When your health is impaired, you need the help of medical professionals and certain medications to get yourself back on track. You rely on doctors and their prescriptions to recover your health and get back into fine form.
But what happens if there is a major, dangerous roadblock that gets in the way of you getting better? What if someone makes a medication error, for instance giving the wrong prescriptions, too much medication, or completely messes up in another way? What are the consequences and, more importantly, how do you recover from that?
You may not want to think about it but there may be a time when you need to sue a medical professional because of carelessness that led to an injury or prohibited you from recovering like you were supposed to.
Doctors and pharmacists are supposed to help clients feel better. But the truth is that isn’t always the case. There are times when people drop the ball and don’t do the job you are paying them for. When that occurs, your health may be at risk. And if it is, you are entitled to sue and gain the sort of respect and peace of mind you deserve. Contact Duffy & Duffy for a free case evaluation and review.
What Is Pharmacy Malpractice?
Medical malpractice cases are typically concerned with errors made by doctors during a surgical procedure. Pharmacy malpractice typically involves prescription errors, dispensing errors, medication mistakes or a pharmacist’s negligence when dispensing prescription medications.
If the treatment was easy or the error was significant, such as conducting a surgery on the inappropriate body portion, the doctor might be held liable for the harm. It is typical in medical malpractice cases for the medical professional’s carelessness not to contribute significantly to a patient’s harm or disease.
Because when a patient visits a medical professional for care, they frequently have a pre-existing ailment, and the medical professional’s neglect just exacerbates or accelerates the sickness. If a client has a life-threatening ailment, for instance, taking pills may be the only way to extend their life.
If a pharmacy professional is careless and fails to provide reasonable care, the patient who is taking the prescription drug will no longer have that time extension. Although the pharmacist’s carelessness did not create the ailment, the law can find the pharmacist liable in some cases.
Even though the pharmacist did not create the patient’s ailment or take away their capacity to live, they did reduce their ability to heal and, perhaps, their life expectancy. In a pharmaceutical malpractice lawsuit, the patient can then sue a pharmacist or pharmacy because of their wasted time or opportunity to recover.
Pharmacists, like other competent professions, have a responsibility to ensure that patients are not injured when a pharmacist is dispensing medication. If a pharmacist causes an injury by failing to satisfy their standard of care, they may be sued for malpractice.
Were You Given the Wrong Medication?
There are many times when a pharmacist may make the wrong choice and do the wrong thing and lead to you being injured or your recovery slowing down.
Medication Error
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons why a pharmacist may be sued for malpractice is when they give out the wrong prescription to a client.
This can happen quite easily. Think of being a pharmacist or a pharmacy tech and looking through dozens upon dozens of names a day. There are many names that are similar or spelled alike. When that happens, the wrong medication may be given completely by accident.
Additionally, there are many medications that are spelled a lot alike or sound similar. That’s just another reason why a pharmacist may make the wrong call and give someone the incorrect medication.
Receiving and ingesting the wrong medication can be quite dangerous for you. It can cause adverse side effects and can even be deadly depending on your overall health.
Incorrect Dosage
When a doctor prescribes medication to you, he or she is giving you a very accurate, focused amount of medicine that is specific to your case, your injury, your illness, and your health. A pharmacist who doesn’t follow these instructions is putting your health at risk. Using too much or too little of a given medication may wreck havoc on your body and your health and can cause serious health complications and reactions that may send you right back to the hospital.
Pharmacy Error
There are sadly many other ways that someone working in a pharmacy may mess up your order and put you at risk. Perhaps they give you too much of your medication, causing you to take too many. Maybe they mix two medications together. Or perhaps they don’t pay attention to allergies that you have and provide you with pills or medicine that is bad for your body and causes an adverse allergic reaction.
The sad truth is that there are many ways for a pharmacy to commit dangerous and even deadly pharmaceutical errors for their clients.
When this happens, you are well within your right to seek restitution. You are not doing this for the money. No, you are doing this to right the wrong committed against you and to fix the situation.
Pharmacists are making their clients a promise when they open their doors to the public. They are supposed to be a place that keeps people safe and makes them healthy. If they are not delivering that and actively making you unhealthy or at risk, they should be held accountable.
Injury Due to Pharmacy Negligence
What happens when you are the victim of pharmacy negligence or malpractice? Sadly, a lot.
The damage done to your body and your health can be immediate, long-lasting, and perhaps lethal. Remember the medications are only given to people in need. Whether you are recovering from surgery, eliminating an illness, or attempting to heal certain parts of your body, medications have specific purposes. Your doctor won’t prescribe them for no reason – there is a goal in mind.
And when someone takes medication that they don’t need, it can create side effects such as heart damage, stomach issues, organ failure, and more. There are powerful prescription drugs in the marketplace. When you need them, they can help you. When you don’t need them, they can do great damage.
If your pharmacy fails to give you the medication that you do need, the situation can be even worse. This can lead to your healing process taking much longer and may cause worse health, lost wages, anxiety, and possibly even death. In some cases, your body simply cannot heal or function if it isn’t supplied with the medication prescribed by your doctor.
When a pharmacy practices negligence, they are putting your life at risk. It’s as simple as that.
Negligence and Prescription Errors
It is important to remember that even with the best intentions, a pharmacy and its employees may still make mistakes that could cost you a lot – including your life.
Negligence and pharmacy errors aren’t always caused by someone trying to hurt you. Sometimes a pharmacist just makes a mistake. Perhaps they are working long hours and aren’t focused. Maybe they aren’t trained properly. Maybe they don’t have a lot of employees to help them. Whatever the reason, an error is an error and those who make them should be held accountable.
It is important to remember that you are not trying to hurt someone, drag them through the mud, or tarnish their name when you are suing them for pharmacy malpractice. Instead, you are simply attempting to take care of yourself, your family, your future, and your health. This is not a matter of trying to get revenge. Rather, it is you attempting to repair the damage that was done – whether intentional or not.
Duffy & Duffy Law Firm Is Here To Help
Proving that a pharmacist made a mistake that led to an impact on your health isn’t easy. It is a thin line to walk and if you are attempting to prove that in a court of law, you need only trained, experienced experts.
That is what you get with Duffy & Duffy, PLLC. For more than 20 years, we have assisted thousands of people as they push through and fight through the tricky, complicated, confusing world of medical malpractice. Pharmacy malpractice is just one of many areas of the law that we excel at.
We have represented communities throughout all of New York and Long Island. Throughout our multiple decades helping those in need, we have secured more than $1 billion in settlements and verdicts.
And we are ready to help you.
Experienced Pharmacy Malpractice Lawyer Duffy & Duffy
Are you confused about pharmacy malpractice? Do you think that maybe you are a victim but aren’t 100% sure? Do you have questions and need answers? If so, the Duffy & Duffy law firm is ready to help you. Not only have we done this many times before, we have delivered for our thousands of clients in the area.
Medical and pharmacy malpractice is no joke. It can cause serious harm and damage, even possibly death. It needs to be handled and resolved by those who know what they are doing, like the legal experts at Duffy & Duffy, PLLC. Contact us today for a free consultation and case evaluation, our pharmacy malpractice lawyers can inform you of your legal rights while keeping your sensitive information confidential.
