What Can You Do If a Prescribed Medication Makes You Sick?

Medications have helped humans extend their lifespan and stay healthy for longer. However, while most medications have mild, expected side effects, some medications can cause major harm, especially if they were prescribed or manufactured incorrectly. If you've gotten sick from a prescribed medication, check out these three options.

1. File a Malpractice Lawsuit Against the Doctor

If a prescribed medication makes you ill, you can often sue your doctor. However, you must prove that the doctor was negligent. For example, if you have no history regarding negative drug interactions, and your doctor prescribes a new medication that gives you bad diarrhea (a listed possible side effect), you probably can't sue your doctor.

However, you can sue your doctor if they prescribed the wrong medication for your condition; this is often due to carelessness or poor instructions on the medication. Other reasons why you can sue your doctor for medication malpractice include if they gave you the incorrect dosage, administered medication to you incorrectly, combined certain medications, or failed to provide you with proper information.

Similarly, you can usually also sue the hospital or clinic where the doctor works. If other doctors or medical staff were also involved, they may be held responsible too, especially if they should have been able to catch the mistake.

2. Sue the Manufacturer of the Medication

If your doctor did everything right but the medication still made you sick, the design of the medicine could have a defect. In this case, you may have the right to sue the manufacturer of the medication. There are three situations in which you can sue the pharmaceutical company.

First, many people get sick from medications because of a defect in the actual drug, making it a bad drug. If you win this case, the manufacturer will have to remove the product from the market, so expect a difficult fight.

You may also sue if there was a mistake during manufacturing - mistakes usually only affect one or two batches of the medication. Therefore, even if you win your cases, the manufacturer may not have to remove the medicine from the market.

Finally, the manufacturer is in charge of writing up the instructions and warning labels for the medication. If they mess up, your doctor could unknowingly prescribe the wrong medication or give you the wrong usage instructions. If you end up getting sick from the mistake, you can usually file a lawsuit.

3. Join a Mass Tort Drug Litigation

In many cases, medication malpractice involves lots of people, especially when it's due to a manufacturing or design defect. On top of that, going after a big pharmaceutical company on your own is an uphill battle. Luckily, if multiple people were affected, you can start or join a class-action mass tort drug litigation.

You may have heard of or even participated in a class-action lawsuit. These are similar to mass tort drug litigation, except for one major difference; in class-action lawsuits, everyone gets the same settlement, but in mass tort drug litigation, each case is considered separately to ensure everyone gets their fair settlement.

If the case is not settled in a mass tort drug litigation, each individual person will still have the right to take the case to court. If you do win the settlement or case, you can expect money for lost wages, pain and suffering, and medical bills.

If a medication made you sick, you have a right to seek restitution. In some cases, you may even be able to sue everyone involved in the line of manufacturing and distribution. If you would like to know more, or if you want to talk about joining or starting a mass tort drug litigation, contact us at Wegner & Associates today.