Your treating physician may prescribe you to take a certain drug to help alleviate or cure your underlying illness or injury. So it is most unfortunate when this drug makes your health condition even worse than before. This may be possible if you are part of the small percentage of users who experience the rare side effects reportedly associated with this drug. Well, please read on to discover whether anyone is necessarily at fault for your pain and suffering, and how a seasoned New York City medical malpractice attorney at Mark L. Bodner, P.C., can help ensure justice prevails in the matter.
When are unexpected side effects the user’s fault?
Before you pin the blame on anyone else, you must do a serious self-evaluation and determine whether you took a drug for the reasons and in the manner for which it was prescribed. This is to say that, sometimes, user errors are what cause unexpected side effects to occur. More specific examples of this are as follows:
- You take the prescription medication too much, too little, or the correct doses but too close together.
- You do not disclose your other medications, supplements, or pre-existing health conditions before your physician prescribes this drug.
- You continue to take the prescription medication after experiencing a “red flag” symptom disclosed on the label or packaging (i.e., chest pain).
- You take a medication that was not originally prescribed to you and obtained without medical supervision (i.e., borrowing a friend’s pain medication).
- You continue to take the rest of your prescription medication even after your physician has explicitly ordered you to stop due to side effects or unsafe conditions.
Who is at fault for my unexpected side effects from a prescription drug?
At this point, you may still believe that you took a medication as prescribed and followed all your physician’s orders to the letter. If so, you may have reasonable suspicion to believe that some other party acted negligently, which subsequently caused your experience with unexpected side effects. Potential scenarios that may apply to your case are as follows:
- The drug manufacturer may be at fault if: the warning label did not adequately describe the side effects, interactions, or contraindications.
- Your treating physician may be at fault if: they did not review your medical history, test results, or medication list before prescribing you this drug.
- An administering pharmacist may be at fault if: they dispensed the wrong medication or if they instructed on an incorrect dosage of the right medication.
- A hospital or medical facility may be at fault if: the staff made a charting mistake in their system or failed to monitor you for known risks after taking this drug.
Your unexpected side effects may have been, or had the potential to be, life-altering, life-threatening, or even life-ending (i.e., organ damage, neurological damage, deadly allergic reactions, etc). So you need to hold the appropriate party accountable for your physical pain, emotional suffering, and other incurred damages.
For further legal assistance, please hire a competent New York City medical malpractice attorney from Mark L. Bodner, P.C. Schedule your initial consultation with us today, and see just how much we can do for you.