When Joliet doctors prescribe powerful medications to patients, such as painkillers, doctors must make sure they are prescribing these types of drugs in a safe manner.
Doctors should acknowledge that their patients may become addicted to painkillers. In order to prevent this from happening, doctors can make sure they only prescribe these drugs when absolutely necessary. Doctors also have a responsibility to make sure they prescribe safe doses for patients. Doctors should always explain the potential side effects patients may experience from taking painkillers, and doctors should also review patients’ medical histories before prescribing painkillers to avoid dangerous drug interactions.
When doctors ignore these responsibilities when prescribing drugs, they risk making medication errorsthat could cause patients to suffer fatal injuries. For example, a mother recently filed a lawsuit against a doctor who she claims was responsible for her daughter’s death. The woman’s daughter died from drug toxicity. The mother claims her daughter’s wrongful death could have been prevented had her daughter’s doctor been more careful when prescribing powerful painkillers.
The mother claims that her daughter became addicted to painkillers after her doctor had started prescribing “dangerous doses” of painkillers. The lawsuit argues that the doctor negligently prescribed the drugs because the doctor was more focused on increasing his profits from prescribing the drugs instead of focusing on his patient’s health and safety.
In addition to prescribing the patient with dangerously high doses of painkillers, the lawsuit also claims that the doctor had failed to acknowledge that the patient’s other medications could interact negatively with painkillers. The woman’s daughter died in April 2011 as a result of the alleged medication error that had been made by the doctor. The woman’s daughter was only 29 years old.
The mother is now seeking more than $1 million in damages for her daughter’s death. She is seeking damages for her daughter’s pain and suffering resulting from her addiction to painkillers as well as damages for lost wages.
Source: The Register-Guard, “Doctor, pain clinic sued by mother over daughter’s death,” Greg Bolt, April 29, 2013
