There’s an old saying that the cure must not be worse than the poison. When doctors and pharmacists write and fill prescriptions, they should be taking that into consideration, accounting for the side effects and potential harm you can face from medication, and comparing it to the good it does to help with your medical condition or illness. When doctors make mistakes, and when pharmacists fill prescriptions wrong, patients can face serious harm that should be adequately compensated in a lawsuit.
A good settlement for a medication error will be enough to cover all of the economic effects of your injury. That often means paying for the medical bills you faced because of the medication errors – e.g., from an illness the proper medication would have prevented or from an illness the wrong medication caused – as well as the other economic effects of taking the wrong medication. It also means accounting for your non-economic effects – the pain and suffering you faced – which can often lead to higher damages than your total economic damages.
For help with your potential case, call Rice Law’s Maryland medication error lawyers at (410) 694-7291.
Kinds of Damages You Can Claim for Prescription Medication Errors
As mentioned, medication errors and problems with prescriptions can typically cause injuries in two areas: failing to help with the condition you have and causing additional harm from a drug you shouldn’t have been taking.
Untreated Conditions
When you get the wrong medication, it is likely that the symptoms or illness the medication is supposed to alleviate or control is going completely unchecked. While some prescription errors – such as mixing up two similar drugs or prescribing the wrong dose – might have some positive effects, they likely will not be as effective as the full dose of the correct drug would have been. This can cause various effects, given the specific situation you are in and the specific problem with the drug you were given.
Think, for example, of a heart medication that was delivered at the wrong dose – e.g., a dose measured in micrograms instead of milligrams. This might provide only a fraction of the help it was supposed to provide in lowering your blood pressure or preventing occlusion. That would practically leave your blood pressure, cholesterol, or clotting ability unchanged, potentially increasing the risk of a heart attack or stroke as though you were not even on medication.
As another example, consider pain medication that was not filled properly. You might be in agony after surgery or while dealing with a chronic pain condition, and no matter how much you take of the wrong drug, it might not alleviate the pain at all. The doctor would have, essentially, left you to feel tortured by your pain without the relief they had promised you.
This all results in additional pain and suffering and other effects, like fear of additional medical conditions, fear of a heart attack, or fear of other medical issues. It also potentially includes expensive medical care to treat anything that does happen or to try to catch up with other treatments for your unchecked conditions.
Effects of the Wrong Drug
When you get the wrong drug, it might cause additional symptoms, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or other harm, but this is not guaranteed.
Sometimes the wrong med that you do take causes no additional issues, which would result in no additional damages. Other times, the drug could be slowly poisoning you, causing you liver or kidney damage, increasing your chances of heart attacks, causing you depression, or otherwise wreaking havoc on your system. Seeking care from another doctor can help diagnose these issues – but of course, that care is an additional cost you should seek damages for.
If treatment is needed to deal with these additional symptoms or side effects, then that will also result in additional medical care. For example, if bloodwork indicates liver damage, you might need ongoing screening for your liver and potentially even a transplant if the harm cannot be reversed. This could come with serious expenses, let alone serious mental and emotional effects.
If the medication you took caused an acute condition like pancreatitis or a heart attack, or if you had an allergic reaction to the wrong medication, then you faced immediate harm that should be compensated. This should include coverage for the medical treatment you needed, as well as the mental and emotional effects of such a scary episode.
Another potential problem is drug interactions from the medication you were given. Whether the doctor gave you the wrong medication entirely or overlooked the negative interactions with the medication they intended to prescribe, drug interactions can cause a wide array of harm. In some cases, this might reduce the effectiveness of other drugs you are on, causing issues like those in the first category above. In others, the interactions will be actively dangerous, potentially causing some of the other issues like liver and kidney failure discussed above.
Calculating Settlements for Medication Errors
When you put all of these harms and areas of injury together, you arrive at two major categories of damages: economic and non-economic damages. Calculating each of these in order is important, and our medication error lawyers can help you calculate the damages in your specific case.
Economic Damages
The total cost of any bills or expenses you faced because you got the wrong medication should be added up to get your total economic damages. This includes all medical bills, the cost of screening, and the cost of additional medication to reverse the issues you faced or catch up on your care. It also includes the cost of any missed time at work if your condition or reaction caused you to miss time at work for medical care or to develop a disability.
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages like pain and suffering are usually paid in reference to how serious your injury or condition was overall. More serious conditions get higher non-economic damages.
As such, these damages are usually calculated either by taking a multiplier based on your case’s severity and applying it to the total economic damages or by assigning a per-day value for your pain and suffering and paying you that amount for each day you suffered. A “good” settlement often pays at least double or triple the economic damages for pain and suffering.
In some states, such as Maryland, there is a cap on non-economic damages, so it is important to have your lawyers determine what that cap would be in your case, as you cannot typically settle for more than the capped amount.
Call Our Prescription Medication Error Lawyers Today
For a free case evaluation, call Rice Law’s Baltimore medication error attorneys at (410) 694-7291 today.