Doubtless you've been to the doctor and heard the nurse ask you a series of questions and write your answers on a paper clipped to her board. The questions are routine and mechanical, and one of them is always "Are you allergic to any medication?" After you've been asked, you answer accordingly, and list any specific medications which give you an allergic reaction. While you may take this question as a typical and routine part of your examination, the fact is if that query is forgotten, it can create a host of problems. A nurse who fails to ask you if you are allergic to any medications, and then proceeds to give the doctor the information to prescribe pills for you could end up in deep water. If you end up with an allergic reaction, then you can sue the medical facility for the malpractice.
Some people have serious and even fatal reactions to certain ingredients in prescription drugs. If you are aware of what ingredients aggravate your system, then let the doctors or nurses know accordingly. If they fail to ask you what you are allergic to, point the mistake out and then inform them of your allergies. This is technically a patient's responsibility. Also, if you have an allergic reaction to a medication and there is no way that the medical staff could have predicted the outbreak, then they cannot be held responsible for your discomfort. Still, if they ever reissued that medication to you with the knowledge that you were affected last time, then that would be grounds for a medical negligence lawsuit.
If a physician knows about your allergic reactions to certain medications and administers the medications anyway, then that is considered a flagrant misuse of profession, and you can press medical malpractice charges. Sometimes doctors will be inattentive and give you a medication that you cannot take because they were not focusing on your appointment. Other times, they may not know an easy-fix solution to your sickness, and so they will administer a drug that they know may not have the best effect on you. In order to file a malpractice claim for this type of situation, you will need to prove that you suffered some damage. This could be the fact that you had to take additional medications, pay extra medical expenses, or suffer pain because of the doctor's mistake.
You may also have a malpractice lawsuit if the doctor was aware that you were allergic to a similar medication and prescribed you a capsule that is in that same family of medicines. For example, if you are allergic to Ibuprofen, then prescribing any medication that is synonymous with or related to Ibuprofen would elicit an allergic reaction. Also, if a doctor prescribes overdoses of a certain kind of prescription, then this can create a medical malpractice lawsuit. It is also illegal for a doctor to prescribe two drugs that will counter-act each other and create a dangerous or uncomfortable reaction. This is why a nurse always needs to ask you if you have been taking any medication before you are diagnosed and given your medicine. If your doctor neglects this information, then he could give you two different ingredients that will have a chemical reaction and severely affect your health.
Allergic reactions normally involve some sort of discomfort. This can range from difficulty breathing to hives, fast heartbeat, dizziness, vomiting, swollenness, drop in blood pressure, pains, and more. Sometimes an allergic reaction can even lead to a heart attack or to blocked lungs. If you believe that your allergic reaction is the result of medical negligence, then you should contact a medical malpractice attorney and talk about your case. Get started with a malpractice attorney today and find out if you can receive compensation because of this mistake!