Medical Malpractice Articles

Prescription drug safety is a major concern for the public these days. Sadly, the last decade is littered with the history of bad drugs which have resulted in horrific side effects, illness and death. These were drugs and pharmaceutical companies that were regulated by the FDA.  Drugs we believed were safe and effective were, in fact, dangerous and defective. In one such instance of this, the death toll climbs in fungal meningitis cases linked to steroid injections from a compounding center, and people are questioning the safety of our drug and pharmaceutical supplies. Who is at fault? The company at issue in the fungal meningitis case is known as a compounding pharmacy and is authorized to prepare only specific doses of approved medications, based on guidance from a doctor, to meet an individual patient’s need.  It appears that the company actually shipped large quantities of drugs throughout the United States. Unfortunately, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has only limited regulatory authority over compounding pharmacies. According to the FDA, in any given week, half of adults will use prescription medications and some 10 percent will take at least 5 different ones. All prescription drugs have some risks. A […]

In today’s blog, we’d like to talk to you about a new piece of legislature that may affect you if you have suffered an injury due to medical malpractice. What is it? The West Virginia Legislature has placed “caps” on damages in medical malpractice actions. Simply, these “caps” limit the amount of damages that you are entitled to in the event that your doctor injured you through an act of medical malpractice. The limits on damages apply to what is known as “non-economic damages.” These are the damages that include pain and suffering, mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life. Medical bills and loss of wages are not capped by West Virginia law. What does this mean? The limits on non-economic damages generally take two forms. If your doctor committed an act of malpractice which resulted in death, permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of a limb or loss of a bodily organ system or permanent physical or mental function, the non- economic damages limit is five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000). However, if your doctor’s malpractice did not result in one of these conditions, then the limit for non-economic damages is two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000).

Few people know that pharmacy technicians are actually the individuals who pull the pharmacy stock bottles off the shelf and fill your prescriptions. They are not pharmacists. Technicians may have limited education and must be supervised by a licensed pharmacist. Pharmacists must check each and every prescription filled by a technician that leaves the pharmacy. Failure of pharmacists to properly supervise their technicians cause many medication errors each year. What kind of mistakes can be made by Pharmacy Technicians? A large majority of medication errors involve patients either getting the wrong dose of medication or the wrong medication altogether. In these circumstances, either the pharmacist or a pharmacy technician either dispensed the wrong medication or the wrong dose, or they may have typed the instruction label incorrectly. Pharmacies must have rules and regulations in place in an effort to catch these mistakes. In most instances, the rules are not being followed and as a result, mistakes occur. What should be done? Many states require pharmacists to counsel patients about the medications that they have been prescribed. Pharmacists must make sure that a patient understands why the medication is being prescribed, what the medication is, how to take the medication, as