Last month, in response to a new Business Report feature, public health officials in Louisiana took action to address the overuse of antibiotics, which can significantly interfere with the ability of our bodies to maintain a healthy, natural balance of the right kind of bacteria. Specifically, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched new efforts, in conjunction with LSU Health School of Medicine, to reduce the overuse of antibiotics with the hopes of preserving their usefulness.
These efforts are particularly important as one of the main causes of antibiotic overuse is diagnostic uncertainty on the part of physicians, who will often prescribe an antibiotic when they are unsure of what a patient is specifically suffering from (just to be safe and/or avoid a lawsuit). One such example is doctors prescribing antibiotics when someone has the flu, even though the flu is a virus and thus cannot be cured by antibiotics.This diagnostic uncertainty can have massive consequences on a patient, and can even lead to medical malpractice if the doctor gives a patient a product that ends up harming the patient.
Medical Errors in General
According to statistics, preventable medical errors are the number three killer in the U.S., coming in after heart disease and cancer, and claiming the lives of some 400,000 people each year. And that’s just the deaths; there are also at least 10,000 serious complication cases that arise from medical errors each day. A number of these injuries and deaths are due to medication errors, giving rise to medical malpractice lawsuits. Doctors can be held liable if they prescribe the wrong medication, the wrong dosage, a medication that a patient is allergic to, and any new medications that could negatively interact with existing medications.
Medical Consequences of Antibiotic Overuse
What is especially frightening about the overuse of antibiotics is that the damage takes place over time, and the body can not only develop immunity to a particular antibiotic (once one particular antibiotic becomes ineffective because a bacteria evolves and becomes resistant), but its demise can give rise to aggressive new organisms that post deadly threats to the entire population. In addition, antibiotics can also kill off good, beneficial bacteria in the body.
The CDC has stated that more than fifty percent of all hospital patients receive antibiotics. Specifically, antibiotics are most frequently used to treat lung infections, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, and urinary tract infections (UTIs). The CDC found that one-third of the prescriptions for UTIs had possible errors, such as inadequate monitoring or diagnosis, or prescribing treatment for too long.
Doctors and pharmacists need to meet their required duty of care to patients, not only when it comes to avoiding the wrong medication for a patient, but also avoiding over-prescribing antibiotics when they are not necessary, or even helpful. Harrell & Nowak has been representing victims of medical malpractice in successful cases for years. Some of our recent successes for clients have included:
- Recovering over $40,000 in a personal injury and medical malpractice lawsuit for a man who was improperly prescribed coumadin after cardiac surgery. Our client was hospitalized for several days and required seven units of blood for a hemorrhage due to the coumadin toxicity;
- $40,000 obtained for a pharmacy error and the resulting personal injury. The pharmacy gave our client the wrong prescription causing her to be hospitalized; and
- A $30,000 settlement for our client’s personal injuries from a medical misdiagnosis. Our client suffered an ectopic pregnancy, which ruptured, but the doctor misdiagnosed it as a miscarriage.
Contact Our Medical Malpractice Attorneys
Our attorneys have the experience, knowledge, and commitment necessary to pursue these claims and represent you for any suffering you have incurred as the result of medical error. Contact our New Orleans firm today for a free, confidential consultation.