3 types of potentially fatal medication errors

Doctors, nurses and medical personnel must take great care to safeguard the health and safety of patients when prescribing and administering pharmaceutical drugs. Whether the drugs are ingested by the patient via pill, patch, liquid or injection, safety needs to be the number one priority to avoid the potentially fatal consequences associated with medication mix-ups, errors and mistakes.

Here are three types of potentially fatal medication errors that happen to patients more commonly than anyone would like to admit:

Medication mix-ups: If you’ve ever been seriously ill or recovering from a serious surgery at a hospital, you know what it’s like to receive your schedule medication from the attending nurse. You also know that different nurses and doctors are helping you (and countless other patients) throughout the day and week. This can lead to medication mix-ups, and sometimes those mix-ups have disastrous health consequences.

Dosage errors: Doctors are trained to administer drugs in the right quantity and frequency to a patient depending on the nature of the patient’s condition and the size and weight of the patient. A dosage error or drug frequency error can cause a patient to overdose and suffer from severe health consequences, even death.

Overlooking known allergens: Every doctor is supposed to keep the allergies suffered by a patient in mind. Imagine a patient who is suffering from a life-threatening infection and is severely allergic to penicillin. If the doctor administers penicillin by mistake, it could be fatal for the patient.

If a doctor, nurse or medical facility caused you to suffer the ill-effects of a medication error – or if your close family member died from a medication error – state personal injury and wrongful death laws are probably on your side. Therefore, you may want to investigate your legal options to pursue justice and restitution without delay.

Author Matt Boulton

Attorney Matt Boulton is an award-winning personal injury attorney with more than 25 years of experience helping seriously injured people throughout Indiana. He designed his firm for the client who expects exceptional service and passionate, successful legal representation.

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