Medication Errors

Welcome to the Rodgers Law Firm

When a patient taking a prescription drug is harmed by a medication error made by a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, or hospital employee, the lives of the victim and the victim’s family and close friends change beyond description.

The pain and suffering caused by the medication error may be further increased by intense feeling of anger, frustration, and resentment because the accident could have been easily avoided if the person at fault, the wrongdoer, had only been more careful.

We at the Rodgers Law Firm in Fort Worth, Texas understand the devastation and losses caused by medication errors.

That's why we are here – to do everything we can to help our clients get the answers, the assistance, and the compensation that they are entitled to under the law.
If you or someone close to you has been harmed by a doctor, nurse, or pharmacist’s carelessness, contact us for a free, no obligation consultation. We will meet with you at our office or any location convenient to you.
The following pages of detailed legal information will give you insights into the depth of our capabilities in medication error cases.

Overview of Medication Errors
Medication errors include drug and anesthesia errors in hospitals, in doctors' offices, and by pharmacies. These mistakes can lead to deadly consequences.
Statistics reveal that the average doctor commits four medication errors for every 1,000 prescriptions written. Typical medication mistakes include prescribing the wrong type of drug, failing to adjust dosages due to a decline in the patient's kidney or liver function, failing to inquire about the patient's history of drug allergies and thereby giving a patient a drug that he or she is allergic to, combining medications that are incompatible, transcribing the wrong drug name on the prescription pad, and calculating the wrong dose for the patient's physical and mental condition.
Communication mistakes included misinterpretation of orders, written miscommunication errors such as the improper labeling of drugs, and oral miscommunication errors. Nurses incorrectly administered drugs because they misunderstood a physician's oral instructions. Wrong directions were printed on some drug labels.

Most medication errors result from health care providers not following the basic guidelines of medication ordering, preparation, and administration. The physician is expected to be knowledgeable about the drugs and medicines prescribed, and the pharmacist is expected to dispense the correct drug and dosage. Nurses should also know enough about the medications in order to question erroneous orders or identify possible dangerous drug combinations.

In 1999 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a report stating that more than 7,000 deaths each year in hospitals are related to medication errors.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received more than 20,000 reports of medication errors. These are voluntary reports, so the number of medication errors that actually occur is thought to be much higher.

Some examples of medication errors:
A physician ordered a 260-milligram preparation of Taxol for a patient, but the pharmacist prepared 260 milligrams of Taxotere instead. Both are chemotherapy drugs used for different types of cancer and with different recommended doses. The patient died several days later, though the death couldn't be linked to the error because the patient was already severely ill.
An elderly patient with rheumatoid arthritis died after receiving an overdose of methotrexate--a 10-milligram daily dose of the drug rather than the intended 10-milligram weekly dose. Some dosing mix-ups have occurred because daily dosing of methotrexate is typically used to treat people with cancer, while low weekly doses of the drug have been prescribed for other conditions, such as arthritis, asthma, and inflammatory bowel disease.
One patient died because 20 units of insulin was abbreviated as "20 U," but the "U" was mistaken for a "zero." As a result, a dose of 200 units of insulin was accidentally injected.
A man died after his wife mistakenly applied six transdermal patches to his skin at one time. The multiple patches delivered an overdose of the narcotic pain medicine fentanyl through his skin.

A patient developed a fatal hemorrhage when given another patient's prescription for the blood thinner warfarin.
The FDA has reported errors involving the inadvertent administration of methadone, a drug used to treat opiate dependence, rather than the intended Metadate ER (methylphenidate) for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). One report involved the death of an 8-year-old boy after a possible medication error at the dispensing pharmacy. The child, who was being treated for ADHD, was found dead at home. Methadone substitution was the suspected cause of death.

Examples of drug name confusion reported to the FDA include:
Serzone (nefazodone) for depression vs Seroquel (quetiapine) for schizophrenia
Lamictal (lamotrigine) for epilepsy vs Lamisil (terbinafine) for nail infections,
Ludiomil (maprotiline) for depression vs Lomotil (diphenoxylate) for diarrhea
Taxotere (docetaxel) vsTaxol (paclitaxel), both for chemotherapy
Zantac (ranitidine) for heartburn vs Zyrtec (cetirizine) for allergies vs Zyprexa (olanzapine) for mental conditions
Celebrex (celecoxib) for arthritis vs Celexa (citalopram) for depression.
Children and infants are particularly at risk of medication errors mainly due to incorrect dosage, because of the need to modify dosages based on age and weight. The dosage modification may be either overlooked or miscalculated. Various studies have shown high error rates in doctors and nurses in calculating weight-dependent dosages in infants and especially neonates (newborn infants less than 4 weeks old).

One study in 1997 cites the following list of medications as most frequently causing adverse reactions in order of incidence:
antibiotics,
chemotherapy,
anticoagulants,
cardiovascular agents,
anticonvulsants,
antidiabetic agents,
antihypertensives,
analgesics,
antiasthma agents,
sedative-hypnotic agents,
antidepressants,
antipsychotic agents, and
antiulcer agents.
(Drug-Induced Disorders, Volume 15, No. 7, November 1, 1997)

Losing the Right to Make the Claim
Medication errors are called “breaches” of the standard of health care. Generally, medication error liability claims must be brought within two years (1) after the exact date the breach of the standard of care happened, or (2) from the exact date the treatment or hospitalization ended if the actual date of the breach of the standard of care cannot be determined.. This statute, not the statute of limitations for wrongful death, applies in health care liability claims for death. The two-year time period begins to run against minors at age eighteen, allowing minors whose claims began before they reach eighteen years of age to sue at any time until they reach the age of twenty.
The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that the two year time period may start before the victim actually discovers that he or she has been harmed by the health care provider’s breach of the standard of care. In some cases, but not including death cases, application of the statute may not bar a claim before the victim has a reasonable opportunity to discover the breach and bring suit.
Sources: Tex. Civ. Prac. & Rem. Code. § 74.251(a); Shah v. Moss, 67 S.W.3d 836, 841 (Tex. 2001); Bala v. Maxwell, 909 S.W.2d 889, 892-893 (Tex.1995); Weiner v. Wasson, 900 S.W.2d 316 (Tex. 1995); Diaz v. Westphal, 941 S.W.2d 96, 99 (Tex. 1997); Shah, 67 S.W.3d at 842; Neagle v. Nelson, 685 S.W.2d 11 (Tex. 1985).
There are other reasons to act quickly. Key witnesses may disappear, witnesses’ memories may fade, and vital documents may be lost. Sometimes it takes months of investigation to determine who the true defendants are that are legally responsible for the accident. It is crucially important that you do not delay in consulting with an attorney.

Contact us for a free no-obligation consultation as soon as possible to ensure that you retain your right to pursue your claim.

Ask Us for a Second Opinion If Another Attorney Has Declined To Represent You
Attorneys regularly decide whether the case that they are reviewing does or does not meet all the requirements to be a viable, sound medication error case. Making this determination is not an exact science. Based on different experiences and analytic abilities, one attorney may turn down the opportunity to represent a client and another attorney may decide to take the case.

The second reviewing attorney saw something the first reviewing attorney may have overlooked. The first attorney may have decided that liability was not clear, that the damages were not large enough, there was not available insurance coverage or other sources to pay the money damages, or that there were other problems in seeking a recovery.

We would welcome the opportunity to review your claim even if another attorney has turned the case down. There is no charge or obligation for our review.

You may contact us at the following phone numbers at any time:

Office: toll free: 1-866-560-1075

local: 817-717-4080


Copyright 1994 - 2007 Clifford B. Rodgers.

Last Modified July 6, 2007.