Medication & Anesthesia Errors

Medication and anesthesia errors are some of the most pervasive and difficult to uncover problems in American healthcare.  Consider the case of the premature infant who received more than 100 times the recommended dose of a blood pressure medication.  It turns out that there were three hospital employees who contributed to mistake, none of whom noted that the dose was incorrect for a newborn child.  The family of the child – who was left mentally retarded and suffering from cerebral palsy and seizures – received $7.1 million in damages from a Suffolk County jury.

Consider another case, where a woman died after receiving the wrong type of anesthesia during routine surgery.  What happened in this case?  Well, the hospital where the surgery was being performed was having financial difficulties, and had hired temporary workers to fill open positions – including in anesthesia and nursing.  The resulting miscommunication between the temporary workers and the staff members resulted in the wrong anesthesia for the surgery, which led to the woman’s death.  Here is a situation where the hospital was so focused on cutting costs that they neglected to consider patient safety as their first priority.

In these situations, the families of the victims sought legal help from Kenneth N. Margolin so they could hold the negligent parties responsible for their loved ones’ suffering.  If you or someone you love has been injured by a medication or anesthesia error, you may be feeling the way they felt – desperate for justice, desperate for accountability, and desperate for help.  Attorney Margolin has dedicated his over 30 year career in litigation to obtaining justice for the injured men, women and children of Massachusetts, and he can help you, too.

Medication and Anesthesia Errors

The examples above indicate how seemingly simple breakdowns in our healthcare system can result in very serious consequences for patients.  Unfortunately, there are many other ways that medication and anesthesia errors can occur.  Here are some examples of errors that Attorney Kenneth N. Margolin has seen during his career:

  • Poor labeling of drugs
  • Dilution errors, especially for children
  • Drugs with similar names, leading to the dispensing of the wrong drug
  • Illegible handwriting by doctors, causing the wrong drug to be given
  • Injections of medications intended to be taken orally
  • Addition of a zero to intended prescription strength (for ex., 12mL read as 120 mL)
  • Wrong tube connected; oxygen or saline solution pumped into patient rather than the intended IV medication
  • Failure or absence of communication between health care professionals in a hospital

If you have put your faith in a doctor or hospital and have been let down, Attorney Kenneth N. Margolin can help you and your family recover from the injustice you’ve experienced. Please call him toll free at 1.800.239.2412 or contact him online for a no cost, no obligation review of your case.

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