Two years ago, a Joliet resident had been taken to a local hospital after she began to experience chest pain. Medical professionals treated and monitored the 24-year-old woman for two days before discharging the patient. After the hospital discharged the patient, the woman was sent to a nursing home in Wilmington. Two days later, the young woman died.
According to reports, the young woman’s father is now filing a wrongful death lawsuit against the nursing home, three of the patient’s doctors and one of the patient’s nurses. The woman’s father claims that the patient’s death was not the result of natural causes or a life-threatening illness. Instead, the father claims that his daughter died as a result of being treated with too many medications during a short period of time.
The father filed the wrongful death lawsuit in Will County on Nov. 16. According to the lawsuit, an autopsy had revealed that the young woman died from “combined drug intoxication.” After the woman was released from the hospital, she was placed in a nursing home to receive further treatment and care. While she was in the nursing home for two days, the man’s daughter had been given a variety of medications. The lawsuit claims that at least 10 different medications were administered to the patient and that the patient had even been given a very strong painkiller in addition to the other medications.
When doctors prescribe medications, they must be careful to prescribe the correct doses and the correct medications. But when doctors prescribe a variety of drugs, they must also carefully consider how the drugs could interact with each other and how the combination of drugs could affect a patient.
Unfortunately, the combination of drugs that had been given to the young nursing home patient eventually killed the woman. Now the woman’s father is requesting that the nursing home and several of the victim’s medical care providers be held accountable for the fatal medication error.
Source: JolietPatch, “Father Sues Over 24-Year-Old Joliet Daughter’s Death,” Joseph Hosey, Nov. 19, 2012
