Prescription Drugs That Can Lead To Permanent Disability
If you feel that your physician improperly prescribed a certain medication, or if he or she failed to monitor you for dangerous prescription drug side effects that resulted in a serious illness or disability, contact a medical malpractice law office, such as Lee Eadon Isgett Popwell & Owens.
Doing so will help you determine if you should push forward with litigation against your physician, the pharmaceutical company, or the hospital where you were treated. Here are two prescription medications that may cause serious life-threatening health consequences, qualifying you for a medical malpractice lawsuit:
Cholesterol-Lowering Drugs
If you have an elevated total cholesterol level that has not been amenable to weight loss, a healthy diet, smoking cessation, and exercise, your doctor may have prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs, known as statins.
While effective in lowering total cholesterol, raising high-density lipoproteins, and lowering low-density lipoproteins, statins can cause side effects such as gastrointestinal distress, headache, muscle pain, and elevations of liver enzymes.
While these side effects are usually mild and transient, a serious condition known as rhabdomyolysis may develop. This can lead to renal failure, heart attack, stroke, and debilitating muscle pain. The treatment for rhabdomyolysis may include kidney dialysis because this condition can render your kidneys ineffective at removing waste products.
This condition refers to the breakdown of muscle tissue into the bloodstream and, if not recognized and treated quickly, may lead to a life-threatening cardiovascular or kidney disorder. If you believe you have rhabdomyolysis as a result of taking cholesterol-lowering medications, contact a medical malpractice attorney.
He or she, along with a physician or nurse, will review your medical records to determine if your statin medication contributed to your illness. In addition, your lawyer will also determine whether your physician failed to monitor routine blood tests that would have indicated the presence of rhabdomyolysis. While you may be entitled to a substantial monetary settlement, it is important that you become familiar with the statute of limitations in your state because you may only have a couple of years to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Anticoagulants
Prescription anticoagulant medications, or blood thinners, are used in the management of blood-clotting disorders and to reduce your risk for heart attack, stroke, or thrombus formation. While they can dramatically reduce your risk for a cardiovascular or cerebral event, anticoagulants can heighten your risk for internal bleeding, and specifically gastrointestinal bleeding and brain hemorrhaging. People who take anticoagulants need routine blood tests to evaluate the clotting mechanisms of the blood.
If the diagnostic tests reveal that your blood is clotting too fast or too slow, your doctor will need to adjust the dosage. If you have suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, or "brain bleed," or if you sustained a blood clot as a result of your physician's negligence in monitoring your lab tests, your malpractice attorney may recommend that you proceed with a lawsuit.
Most of the time, simple diagnostic blood tests can greatly reduce your risk for complications stemming from prescription anticoagulants; however, if your doctor failed to follow through with these tests, you may be entitled to a substantial settlement for your future health care costs, current medical costs, and pain and suffering.
A cerebral hemorrhage can be devastating, and while physical and occupational therapy can help you regain upper and lower body strength, residual effects are common and often disabling.
If you believe that you were a victim of medical malpractice, contact a malpractice attorney as soon as possible. As previously stated, time is of the essence, because the statute of limitations can run out after a couple of years. There may be extenuating circumstances, however, that may extend the statute of limitations time frame in your state.
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