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While many medications have improved the way we receive medical care, they can be dangerous. Doctors must exercise caution when prescribing medication, as mismanagement or high dosages could lead to accidental fatal overdoses. In such cases, doctors may be held responsible for the patient’s passing.
Even though patients voluntarily take medication, families can sue for wrongful death from overdoses. Doctors must ensure dosages are safe and patients are advised of risks, including the potential for addiction and overdose. Doctors are often responsible for wrongful deaths from overdoses, though pharmaceutical companies might be liable in their place for overly dangerous drugs.
Call The Queenan Law Firm at (817) 476-1797 for a case review from our attorneys for wrongful deaths from prescription overdoses.
How an Overdose from Prescription Drugs May Lead to Wrongful Death Claims
Fatal overdoses often lead families to wrestle with the notion that their loved one is somehow to blame. However, many wrongful deaths from prescription medicine happen because of others who prescribed the medicine or filled the prescriptions.
Incorrect Medication or Dosage
Doctors are often responsible for overdose deaths by prescribing dangerous or incorrect medication.
Doctors should account for a patient’s past drug use and addictive behaviors and rely on drugs with lesser risks of abuse and overdosing when necessary.
Doctors must also prescribe the right dosage for the correct medicine. Dosages cannot be way too high. The right dosage is tricky to determine, and doctors often have to go back and forth with patients about their condition and medical history to land on the right dosage. If the doctor did not, they might be held responsible for an overdose-related death.
Bad Instructions
Even when doctors prescribe the right medication in a safe dosage, they must still warn patients of risks. Medical care is rarely without risks or side effects, and doctors must adequately advise patients so that the care is consensual.
Powerful medications with a risk of dependency might be necessary, but patients must be warned of these risks so they can decide for themselves whether to proceed. If the doctor fails to warn the patient of how serious the risks are, they might be responsible for a subsequent overdose.
Even when doctors manage to warn patients of the risks of medication, the warnings must be adequate. If the doctor gave vague, incorrect, or incomplete instructions, the likelihood of overdosing might go up. For example, if mixing certain medications with alcohol is dangerous, the patient must be told so. Doctors should also check how the drug interacts with the patient’s other medications.
Medication Not from a Doctor
People who have extra medicine might share it for free or illegally sell it. Either way, this is illegal and dangerous. If your loved one was given prescription medicine from a friend, neighbor, or acquaintance and overdoses, that person might be responsible.
This can be a difficult case to take to court. Defendants might argue that the victim assumed the risk of taking unprescribed medication, but this is ultimately up to a jury.
Evidence We Need in a Wrongful Death Case for Prescription Medication Overdoses in Plano
One of the most important pieces of evidence in your case will be your loved one’s medical records. These will indicate the extent of their injuries when they overdosed and shed light on who prescribed the medication and whether medical negligence occurred.
An overdose is a serious emergency, and medical records from their treatment after the overdose may show us everything the hospital did to try to save your loved one. This information can help show the damages your loved one experienced before passing, like physical injuries and medical costs.
After your loved one passed away, you might have had the option to have an autopsy performed. While some families feel this is unnecessary, it can be very helpful if you sue a negligent doctor or hospital. Autopsies involve toxicology tests and reports to show what medications and amounts were present. These reports can rule out other causes of death.
Testimony may also be critical to your case. Do you know if your loved one was properly instructed? Maybe you were in the room with them and the doctor when they received the prescription. If the defendant tries to argue that your loved one intentionally overdosed, you might have personal knowledge to the contrary. Your testimony or testimony from others close to the case might be extremely important.
Who May Be Held Responsible for an Overdose-Related Death?
Doctors are often held responsible when patients overdose on medication that is too strong or should never have been prescribed. However, your loved one’s doctor might not be the only person responsible. Others might bear blame for your loved one’s passing in addition to or instead of the doctor.
Pharmacies may be held responsible if they negligently mixed up your loved one’s medication. While doctors write the prescription, it is up to the pharmacy to fill it correctly.
Pharmacists handled hundreds of different medications, and mix-ups sometimes happen. Your loved one might have accidentally overdosed because they were given the wrong medicine or an incorrect dosage.
Another possibility is that the pharmaceutical company that produces the medication is negligent. These companies must make sure that the medicine they make is safe for consumers.
Ingredients must be listed so doctors know exactly what is in the medicine they provide to patients. Companies must also be up front about the risks. If a particular drug has a high risk of dependency and abuse, the pharmaceutical company must make this clear.
If they downplay the risks, they may be held responsible for overdose-related deaths.
Call Our Plano Lawyers for Wrongful Deaths from Prescription Overdoses
Call The Queenan Law Firm at (817) 476-1797 for a free, confidential case evaluation from our attorneys for wrongful deaths from prescription overdoses.