Not all instances of medical malpractice involve doctors, nurses, and other healthcare providers who work in our nation’s hospitals and clinics. Indeed, many malpractice cases are rooted in negligence that occurs in our local pharmacies. At Harrell & Nowak in New Orleans, pharmaceutical errors are at the center of many of the medical malpractice cases we handle.
If you are searching for an experienced personal injury attorney to handle your pharmaceutical error case, you will find not one but two at the law firm of Harrell & Nowak. Shirin Harrell and Eric Nowak have extensive experience and a history of success in handling the full range of medical malpractice claims, including those arising from pharmaceutical errors and other acts of pharmaceutical negligence. Whatever the circumstances surrounding your case, you can rest assured that our medical malpractice lawyers will present the strongest, most compelling case possible on your behalf.
Common Pharmaceutical Errors
It should be noted that most pharmaceutical professionals, and indeed most medical professionals, are extremely competent and perform their duties with meticulous care and respect for their patients. Nevertheless, mistakes do occur each and every day in pharmacies throughout the country. While some are minor and easily rectified, others can inflict permanent harm on innocent patients, putting their health and even their lives at unnecessary risk.
Patients are expected to exercise some diligence in making sure that they have received the correct medications and the correct dosages when filling their prescriptions. If they have any doubts, they should call their doctors before taking any medication. However, this does not mean that pharmaceutical professionals should be forgiven for sloppy, preventable, and potentially life-threatening mistakes.
The most common pharmaceutical errors include:
- Errors in dosage: When a pharmaceutical professional misreads or misunderstands a prescription, the incorrect dosage of a medicine can be administered to a patient. While the risks associated with administering overly large dosages are well known, the risks of administering low dosages can be equally severe, especially if precise amounts of a medication are necessary to ensuring the patient’s health.
- Confusion between drugs with similar names: If there are two similarly named drugs on a shelf, a pharmacist may accidentally grab the wrong one. Since many pharmacies organize their medications alphabetically, this can happen quite easily in some instances.
- Providing a patient with medication intended for another patient: This is particularly possible in crowded, high-traffic pharmacies.
- Providing medication with incorrect directions for usage.
- Errors in the compounding of a medication.
Some pharmaceutical errors are not the fault of the pharmacy staff, but rather of the prescribing doctor. If a doctor prescribes a medication that interacts adversely with another medication that a patient is taking, for example, the consequences can be catastrophic in some instances. Incorrect medications or dosages may also be prescribed as a result of the misdiagnosis of a condition.
Learn More about Pharmaceutical Malpractice
If you or a member of your family has suffered an injury due to a pharmaceutical error, please contact the law firm of Harrell & Nowak today to arrange an evaluation of your case.