Medications & Drug-Related Injuries
Health care providers have the knowledge, authority, and tools to do tremendous things to help patients. Negligent health care providers also have the power to do great harm to patients if they do not perform appropriately.
Medications and drugs are an increasingly potent and important part of healthcare. However, they are also increasingly harmful in the hands of negligent medical professionals. The ways in which doctor and hospital mistakes can cause good medications to harm patients are nearly endless—for instance, when medications are prescribed to the wrong patient, or given at the wrong time, or are administered without proper supervision or in unsafe combinations.
The attorneys at Kolsby Gordon represent those who are injured by doctors, hospitals, and pharmacies that administer medications inappropriately. We have a strong track record in medical cases such as these, and unique medical expertise: At Kolsby Gordon, two of our lawyers are board-certified medical doctors.
Recent examples of cases in which Kolsby Gordon has represented those injured by the inappropriate use of medications include:
- Seven-Figure Settlement for Improperly Filled Prescription Leading to Permanent Disability Until a pharmacy accidentally gave her the wrong prescription, the plaintiff was an active and healthy young woman who enjoyed rollerblading, gardening, cooking, and regular exercise. Ten days of the wrong medication however, caused drug-induced lupus. For that she was treated with high-dose steroids. The steroids, in turn, inspired the very serious condition of avascular necroses in both knees and one ankle. She will require two knee replacements, she is in constant pain, and she can perform only a fraction of her previous activities. Worse still, there is not a good treatment available for her ankle and she is at risk of developing the same condition in her other ankle, as well as in her elbows. Kolsby Gordon achieved a seven-figure settlement on her behalf.
- Seven-Figure Settlement for Incorrect Medication Leading to Multiple Amputations After successful heart surgery, the recovering patient demonstrated classic signs of Heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) a condition of restricted blood flow to extremities caused by the drug Heparin. For various reasons, including extraordinary administrative incompetence and wholly negligent and inattentive care, the patient’s condition was not recognized for an extended period. Rather than prescribing medicine to reverse the HIT, one doctor prescribed several more hours of intravenous Heparin. By the time the HIT was treated, it was so advanced that it could not be thoroughly reversed. Eventually the HIT led to necrosis, which occurred due to a lack of blood flow to the limbs and for which below-the-knee amputations of both legs as well as amputations of substantial portions of all five fingers on the patient’s right hand were the only remedy. The patient was hospitalized for seven months thereafter and is now wheelchair bound and reliant on around-the-clock care. Kolsby Gordon attorneys achieved a seven-figure settlement for the patient.
