Can I take legal action against a Doctor who prescribed the wrong medicine?

Question

I went to the doctor on 11/15/07. I told the doctor my symptons and she examined me. She then sent my blood & urine work to the lab, but she prescribed the medicine before the results came back. The doctor called me 11/19/07 asking me how I felt. Now I got extremely sick the next day and did not know what was wrong with me. She stated the medicine she prescribed was resistent once she saw my test results. I missed work and a family reunion because I was so sick. What should I do from here? Thanks!

Answer 1

The physician followed standard procedure. It is quite common to prescribe a medicine, particularly an antibiotic, before lab tests are complete. That's because a great many infections can become life-threatening if not treated immediately. But about half the time, once lab results are in, it becomes necessary to change the medicine to one that the lab tells us will be more effective.
The doctor's first medication did not make you "extremely sick". The infectious agent (germ) did that. That you missed a family reunion and work due to your illness is not the physician's fault. Blame the real culprit: the germs that infected you.
Your medicine was expensive, wasn't it? So were the lab tests and the doctor visit. Do you know why health care is so expensive? I'll tell you why: it's because so many greedy people rush to court every time they think there's a chance to profit from a perceived physician mistake. Most such lawsuits fail, but doctors, pharmacists and drug manufacturers all have to pay a hefty price defending themselves in court anyway - and they pass that hefty price along to their patients - to you. Even nurses have to practice defensively these days - as a nurse specialist, I paid thousands of dollars for malpractice insurance before I retired - I had no choice; no potential employer would hire me unless I could produce evidence of such insurance. And guess what: you pay far more for nursing care than you would if people weren't so God D(a)mn greedy and lawyers weren't so God D(a)mn disreputable.
You aren't greedy, are you?

Answer 2

You will definitely need legal representation but may have a problem finding an attorney. They will fight it for awhile with stuff like how accurately you described the symptoms in the first place and was the prescribed medication really the cause of you getting sick and missing work.
Do you see all the holes in the case?
You might have had a reaction to some food you ate or a 24 hour stomach virus. You really don't have any concrete proof of negligence.

Answer 3

A law suit would be more costly than the day of work you missed. And thats about all you would get out of it if you won. Doctors give the wrong med's all the time. When you can take legal action is when a death or something serious and/or life altering comes from it.
But you just missed a day of work. Doctors will usually give you med's before your tests come back, to attempt to help before an offical answer is presented.
Legal actions if you want, but your just going to miss more work . . . which is why you want to sue to begin with. If your that concerned, change doctors. But if you like your doctor, realize, the wrong drugs happen a lot more often than we know.

Answer 4

Umm...you can sue, but that won't mean you will be successful. First, and understand this, the burden of proof will be on you. Second, you'd probably have to have a physician on your side to testify against your doctor, and that is extremely hard to find. You would then have to prove without a shadow of a doubt that he didn't act as another physician would have in a similar case, and as a direct result of that, it caused you bodily harm. With this case, it would be extremely hard to prove. To me, it is just a case of him "jumping the gun", but he is still not necessarily in the wrong. He still would have treated you like another physician would have. So, at this point in my opinion, he is only guilty of being human, but not of malpractice. I believe you have a very weak case, if you could even find a lawyer that would take it. Your best bet is to just drop it, and if you don't really like this guy, find another doctor. Best of luck to you.

Answer 5

I'm not a lawyer, so I really don't know whether you have a case or not. But that aside, I would certainly find a different doctor. I would say that the one you have now is incompentent. Perhaps she cheated her way through school, like so many on YA seem to be doing!

Answer 6

The answer is what I used to use during my lectures. "The five anys." Any one, Any time, Any place, Any where, for Any thing. A person can file a law suit against a doctor, or other medical professional, for one or more of these things.

Answer 7

No, you'd be wasting your time and energy. You would have to been hospitalized, with a trauma associated with the "wrong" medicine. Your missing work, and a family reunion (you were sick correct)? forget it.

Answer 8

That's a good doctor. At least she called you and tell you, she didn't let you continue taking the medication. But I think you can take legal action.

Answer 9

my sister sued her doctor because he gave her 3 prescriptions and she wasnt supposed to mix them together they could make her go into a overdose shock and her doctor told her take all 3 at once the pharmacy had to tell my sister that she isnt supposed to do that

Answer 10

Be glad that you are better and that your doc called to check on you. Doctor's are just like you, they just have better degrees. The fact that she called you in itself shows that she was working in good faith.