St. Louis Adverse Drug Reaction Lawyer
Doctors may prescribe a variety of drugs to treat our health conditions, manage pain, and help us heal. It is not uncommon for patients to suffer an adverse reaction when taking these drugs. Medical professionals, pharmacists, and drug companies may not be able to account for or prevent all adverse reactions. However, a victim of an adverse drug reaction may have legal recourse if the reaction could have been avoided with proper care or due caution.
If this has happened to you, contact the adverse drug reaction lawyers at Sumner Law Group, LLC. With more than 50 years of collective legal experience, our attorneys have the skills and the resources necessary to handle complex dangerous drug cases. Our firm will work tirelessly to pursue full compensation and justice on your behalf.
Contact us today for a free case review with an experienced St. Louis adverse drug reaction attorney. There is no upfront charge for us to begin work on your case, and you only pay us if we win money for you.
Adverse Drug Reaction Definition
An adverse drug reaction refers to any harmful or unpleasant reaction caused by a medicinal product. Adverse drug reactions can arise from normal biochemical interaction in a patient’s body as well as from error, drug abuse or misuse, and off-label use of drugs (the use of a drug for a reason other than its intended and approved purposes).
Who Is Responsible for Adverse Drug Reactions?
Depending on the exact cause of an adverse drug reaction, several parties may bear liability for the injuries and losses you have suffered.
Physician liability
A prescribing physician can be held liable for your adverse drug reaction if it results from the doctor’s failure to:
- Take your complete medical history
- Consider the other medications you are taking
- Note the medical conditions you have that contraindicate taking the medication that caused your adverse reaction
Physicians should also check a drug’s reference manual to confirm contraindicated medications or medical conditions that should preclude you from taking a certain drug. A physician’s error may also cause an adverse reaction if he or she miscalculates the dosage for your prescription.
A physician may be held responsible for failing to provide you with adequate instructions for taking medication, such as the schedule for taking the medication, whether you should take it with food or on an empty stomach, and the food and drink to avoid with the medication.
Pharmacy liability
Pharmacist errors can also lead to an adverse drug reaction. Pharmacists may fill the wrong drug or wrong dosage into a prescription. This often occurs when the pharmacist fails to confirm a prescription order when a physician uses incorrect or confusing abbreviations or the prescription itself has legibility issues.
Drug company liability
Before putting a drug on the market, drug companies are expected to conduct clinical trials to determine whether the drug causes serious adverse reactions. An inadequate or improperly performed clinical trial may miss those serious adverse reactions.
Drug companies are also expected to continue drug testing with the patients who end up suffering adverse reactions. In doing that, the drug companies can update the drug’s safety information or, if necessary, pull the drug off the market. However, drug companies may fail to follow up with patients taking the drug for adverse reaction reports. In rare cases, drug companies may even conceal evidence that a medication causes certain adverse reactions.
Drug companies can also be held liable for adverse reactions caused by contaminants in medications that they manufacture.
Compensation for Adverse Drug Reactions
If you have had an adverse drug reaction, you may be entitled to recover compensation for the injuries and losses you have endured as a result. That compensation may include:
- Costs of medical treatment for the injuries and medical conditions triggered by the adverse reaction
- Long-term care costs if the adverse reaction causes you to suffer debilitating injuries or conditions
- Lost income if you must miss work to recover from an adverse reaction
- Lost earning capacity if you suffer disabilities that prevent you from returning to work
- Pain and suffering
- Lost quality of life, such as due to disabilities or reduced life expectancy caused by the harm you suffered
What to Do If You Have Experienced an Adverse Reaction
If you have experienced an adverse reaction from medication, take these steps to help protect your safety and your rights to pursue compensation from the responsible parties:
- Immediately stop taking the drug and contact your prescribing physician.
- If safe to do so, keep the rest of the medication that caused your adverse reaction. Experts can examine it to determine exactly what caused your adverse reaction.
- Follow up with your doctor for an examination to determine what injuries and harm your adverse reaction may have caused you.
- Gather your medical treatment records relating to the decision to prescribe or start taking the medication. Also, keep records of your care since you started taking the medication that caused your adverse reaction.
- Contact Sumner Law Group, LLC, for a free case evaluation to discuss your claim and whether you may be entitled to compensation for injuries and losses you have suffered.
How a Dangerous Drug Lawyer Can Help You
If you have been harmed by an adverse drug reaction, the attorneys of Sumner Law Group, LLC, can help by:
- Gathering evidence for your case, including preserving and testing the medication that injured you
- Collaborating with medical and pharmaceutical experts to identify the parties at fault for your adverse drug reaction
- Documenting the full extent of your injuries and losses, including medical bills, lost wages, and intangible losses like pain and suffering
- Filing your claims for compensation with the at-fault parties and aggressively pursuing a fair settlement on your behalf
- Preparing your case for trial, if it becomes necessary, to show the other party the strength of your claim
- Making certain other doctors and medical facilities know of a drug’s risks by adverse drug reaction reporting to the appropriate federal agencies
Contact us online or call Sumner Law Group, LLC, to speak with a St. Louis adverse drug reaction lawyer right away. Our consultations are 100% free, and you will not owe us anything until we recover money for you. Call us now, and let us help.
