Articles Tagged with doctor error

More than 1.5 million people are injured each year in the U.S. due to medication errors, and about 7,000 are killed. When doctors or pharmacists makes a mistake with prescription medications, the consequences can be fatal.

Claims for prescription errors are often based on simple negligence, but can be attributed to professional malpractice. The following are the most common mistakes made by both doctors and pharmacies:

  • Failure to notify patient of possible side effects.

A teenager was left permanently paralyzed from the waist down after an epidural anesthetic was left in her spine for too long. The young woman was 14 years old when she went in for a routine operation to remove gallstones.

During the patient’s hospital stay, the hospital staff had been told that the numbness had spread to both her legs and she was unable to move her feet. The anesthetic was not removed until 48 hours after the patient’s operation, by which time it had entered the girl’s spinal cord and damaged the membrane.

The girl’s attorney said that the hospital’s full admission of liability now paves the way for a settlement of this medical malpractice claim that will provide the girl with the financial support she will need to pay for specialist care and equipment for the rest of her life.