Your doctor may try to help you by prescribing a medication that will cure, prevent, slow the progression of, or manage the symptoms of your diagnosed illness or injury. But if they overcompensate and order you to take more of this medication than what is reasonable and safe, this may have the opposite effect. With that being said, please follow along to find out what to do if a doctor prescribes an overdose of a medication and how a proficient New York City medication error attorney at Mark L. Bodner, P.C., can work to preserve your health and safety.
How does a doctor know how much medication to prescribe?
As a rule of thumb, doctors should prescribe the lowest effective dose of a medication. They may calculate this by first considering the characteristics of a specific drug, particularly its potency and how it reacts to the body. Then, they may evaluate a patient’s unique characteristics, namely their age, weight, kidney and liver function, pre-existing prescription medications, etc. Before prescribing, they should educate the patient on how to take the medication. Afterwards, they should monitor their progress and whether they are experiencing any side effects.
What happens if a doctor prescribes an overdose of medication?
This may be your first time taking a certain medication, and you may have followed your doctor’s orders precisely. Even so, you may unfortunately find yourself in a state where you have taken an overdose of the medication. If you have, you may experience serious health complications, such as organ damage or entering into a coma. At the very least, you may have now exacerbated your health condition that you were working so hard to treat. Inevitably, you may be charged with additional medical bills to reverse your doctor’s mistake.
Can I sue if a doctor prescribes an overdose of an addictive drug?
If you believe your doctor acted negligently when prescribing you too much of a medication or too frequently, you may have a medical malpractice claim on your hands. But this may be especially true if the prescription drug in question is widely known as addictive, such as an opioid, benzodiazepine, or stimulant. This is if there was an alternative medication or treatment that would not have led to you experiencing addiction issues or triggering your pre-existing substance abuse issues.
Under any of these circumstances, as a plaintiff of a medical malpractice claim, you must effectively establish that you took the medication as prescribed by your doctor. That is, you did not take it upon yourself to take too much of it or too frequently. With this, you must have tangible evidence of your doctor’s error, as clear as their prescription note where they wrote down the wrong dosage.
If this blog has deeply resonated with your personal situation and concerns thus far, please reach out to a talented New York City hospital negligence attorney for more information. The team at Mark L. Bodner, P.C., will be glad to represent you in your upcoming legal case.