Your doctor must warn you of a medication’s potential risks. Even if you are warned, an error may lead to serious complications. You and your attorney must work together to determine how the error occurred and obtain compensation from the person responsible.
Perhaps a doctor prescribed you the right medicine but the wrong dosage. Maybe the pharmacy mixed your medication up with someone else’s. Still, maybe someone in your household mixed up your medication. If a doctor or healthcare institution is to blame, your attorney should help you file a medical malpractice case. This requires medical experts who can review your case and determine if there were errors amounting to medical negligence. Medical records, your testimony, and the medication itself may be needed as evidence.
Receive a complimentary initial case review from our medication error attorneys at Rice Law by calling us at (410) 694-7291.
How Medication Errors Can Occur in Waldorf
Doctors, nurses, and pharmacists must thoroughly document everything about how medication is administered. You might have a claim if our medication error lawyers determine that you were injured due to a medical mistake.
Incorrect Dosages
Doctors must determine safe and appropriate dosages according to the standard of care. If they deviate from this standard by prescribing unreasonably high or low dosages, the patient might be injured.
If the medication dosage is erroneously high, you might suffer serious side effects or complications. Medication can be powerful, and a dangerous dosage might make your condition worse, create new complications, or lead to a fatal overdose.
If your dosage is too low, your condition might not be treated effectively, allowing it to become worse over time. Sometimes, ineffectively low dosages cause a patient’s condition to deteriorate so severely that they might never fully recover.
Pharmacy Errors
Pharmacists must make sure that patients get the correct medication in the correct dosage. This can be a hard job, as pills may look similar or have similar names. Patients might not realize that their pharmacy filled the wrong prescription until after they suffer adverse reactions.
Pharmacies must keep accurate records of how they fill prescriptions. These records may shed light on where and how the medication error happened.
Medicine Mix-Ups
Mixing up medications at home is possible, and you might take legal action if someone else negligently caused the mix-up. Mix-ups are not always accidental. Someone you know might steal your medication and replace it with similar-looking pills, causing you to suffer serious complications. Not only is this a crime, but you might have a civil claim for damages.
Medical Malpractice Claims for Medication Errors in Waldorf
Medical malpractice claims require in-depth medical knowledge that lawyers and judges often lack. As such, medical experts play a significant role. These cases are not like ordinary injury cases, and they often move through different legal channels.
Statute of Limitations
We must file a medical malpractice case against a doctor, hospital, or other medical professionals according to Md. Code Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 5-109(a). We have 5 years from when your injuries occurred or 3 years from when you realized the injuries, whichever is earlier. Be sure to keep track of when you began taking the medication and when you first noticed signs of injury or complications.
According to subsection (b) of the law, if a plaintiff is younger than 11 when the injuries first occur, the limitation period does not begin until the plaintiff reaches age 11.
Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution
In Maryland, medical malpractice cases are required to go through Health Care Alternative Dispute Resolution, a form of mandatory arbitration. Your case may go before a panel of 3 arbitrators who determine if medical malpractice occurred and who is liable.
While arbitration can help you recover damages for medication errors without a trial, the arbitration results are not legally binding unless both parties agree. If you are dissatisfied with the outcome, you may proceed to a trial.
Certificate of a Qualified Expert
Since medical malpractice cases require in-depth medical knowledge, we must have expert testimony from a medical professional. According to § 3-2A-06D(b), we must file a certificate from a qualified expert within 15 days stating that discovery is to be completed on your case.
The certificate should explain why the medical expert believes that medical malpractice occurred. This may include details about the standard of care, the expert’s qualifications, and how the defendant’s actions constitute medical malpractice.
Waiver of Arbitration
If you know that arbitration is not what you want, you may waive it and proceed to civil court. According to Md. Code Cts. & Jud. Proc. Art., § 3-2A-06B(b), you may waive arbitration after filing a certificate of a qualified expert. According to subsection (d) of this statute, you must file your waiver no later than 60 days after all defendants have filed a certificate of a qualified expert.
Evidence We Need to Prove Your Claims in a Waldorf Medication Error Case
Your medical records from when you were treated and prescribed the medication might be incredibly important. If you have an allergy, it might be in your records, and your doctor should check before prescribing. If your doctor prescribed a dangerous dosage, it should also be in your records.
We should have the medication itself as evidence. If you still have any of the medication that was erroneously prescribed, we should have it evaluated. Chemically testing the medication may reveal dangerous ingredients or contaminants that can cause adverse reactions.
Expert testimony from a medical professional is crucial. Understanding how a medication error could cause such serious injuries might be difficult for a jury with no medical training. An expert can review your records and help explain what went wrong.
Receive Help From Our Waldorf Medication Error Lawyers
Get a private initial case review for free from our medication error attorneys at Rice Law by calling (410) 694-7291.