The Lawrence Firm Blog

A wrongful death lawsuit based on an alleged medication error was filed against Fresenius, the company that produces GranuFlo and NaturaLyte, by the victim’s widow. She claims that the drug company failed to adequately warn the public about adverse side effects, such as sudden elevations in the bicarbonate level of the blood that can lead to heart attacks. The victim died after being given dialysis using one of the two

A new report by the National Academy of Sciences shows that military doctors may be overprescribing pain pills. This lax prescribing leads to the issue of overmedication that seems to be plaguing service people with resulting addictions. Active personnel who are caught abusing prescription drugs may be given a dishonorable discharge, leading to loss of veterans’ benefits. Unable to pay for their medication, they may resort to criminal behavior to

While a 45-year-old woman’s cardiac bypass surgery appeared to be a success, hospital officials did not anticipate a post-op error that was to be made just a few hours after the surgery took place. An evening nurse administered anesthesia called Propofol, and the patient soon after died of a cardiac arrest. A jury apparently felt that the nurse was not qualified to administer the anesthesia as it returned a $15

Kentucky and Ohio patients may be interested in knowing that most medication errors occur during the administration phase. And a recent study has shown that more than one-third of such errors involved the giving of medication intravenously. Patient safety organizations have stressed that every medical provider should implement a system or protocol that would prevent such errors from occurring to begin with. This would include strategies such as leadership support,

Prescription mistakes are occurring at an alarming rate in Ohio and elsewhere in the nation. Unfortunately, such medication errors can often be deadly. For example, a 10-year-old boy had been prescribed Intuniv for ADD. What the pharmacy had provided instead was a medication used to treat schizophrenia. If his mother had not noticed that the pill was a different color and called about her concerns, the boy would probably have

An Ohio pharmacist is awaiting an appeal for having her license permanently suspended. It appears that there were a number of irregularities concerning her practice, which the court labeled “technical violations.” Nevertheless, the violations were deemed serious enough to raise concerns that she was administering medications safely. At her pharmacy, there were unmarked intravenous mixtures and prescriptions shuffled in with her billings. It was also found that she had made

Dr. Otis Webb Brawley has written a book called, “How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America.” Despite what politicians may claim, Dr. Brawley blames much of physician malpractice and medical malpractice going on in the United States on the physician. Dr. Brawley believes that many doctors are science-adverse and will reject objective evidence. Also, treatment by physicians is often worse than the disease. For

A professor at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy is concerned about the lack of post-discharge medication management for patients released from the hospital. Patients are not often cognitive of side effects or other drug-related reactions that should alert them to problems concerning the medications they have been prescribed. Such medication errors can lead to changes such as weight gain for a patient with congestive heart failure, which could

Medication errors in Ohio are potentially devastating. An Ohio pharmacist once served six months in jail for neglecting to detect a mistake made by a technician in mixing chemotherapy. A 2-year-old girl, receiving what was to be her last chemotherapy treatment, died as a result of a medication error in giving the girl an overdose of saline. Perhaps to cut costs, the pharmacist was working alone on the Sunday he

In Montgomery County, Ohio approximately 40 people have reportedly died in suspected overmedication-related deaths in 2011, a death rate that doubles that of other urban Ohio counties. State authorities are cracking down. And if authorities are correct, a Dayton doctor could be staring at the wrong end of several medical malpractice lawsuits brought by families who have lost a loved one to his medical negligence as well as by some

A fatal combination of medications can be the result of negligent actions by a doctor or other medical professional in Ohio and across the country. Recent federal and state indictments prove their actions could also be criminal. Florida recently took action against what it terms “pill mills” by charging four pain clinics as organized crime enterprises. Officials say their medical practices resulted in a fatal overdose. The arrests were made