Prescription drugs can be very helpful to patients in West Virginia who are suffering from due to illness or injury. If your doctor gets your prescription wrong, though, it can cause serious damage or even be fatal. Thousands of people die every year due to prescription errors, so here are some of the most common issues to look out for.
Prescribing the wrong drug
One of the most common errors is when your doctor accidentally prescribes you the wrong drug. Prescribing the wrong drug can cause your symptoms to worsen or could give you new symptoms you didn’t previously have. By not paying attention to which drug they are prescribing you, this form of neglect could be considered a medical malpractice case.
Wrong dosage
Instead of prescribing you the wrong drug, a doctor may make an error by giving you the wrong dosage. Some drugs are very strong and can have negative reactions if you take too much.
An excessive amount of a drug could cause you to overdose, which might potentially give you a heart attack or a stroke. The dosage being too low could cause the drug to not be as effective as it needs to be, which could allow your illness to continue to increase in severity.
Misdiagnosis
Prescription errors sometimes get caused by your doctor having an inadequate understanding of your condition. This can cause the doctor to misdiagnose what illness you are suffering from and prescribe you medication for the wrong illness.
Drug interactions
Many patients have to deal with multiple illnesses and medical conditions, so they have to take more than one medication every day. One error that a doctor may make is giving you a drug without realizing that it may have a negative interaction with another prescription that you are already taking.
A small error in your prescription can be deadly. You should always double-check your prescription before taking it and ensure that your doctor is thorough so that they don’t give you the wrong medication.
