Are You A Victim Of A Kentucky Medication Error?

Patients undergoing therapies for cancer or other tumors are often exposed to long and repeated radiation sessions. It is not uncommon for the sophisticated machines used to perform radiation treatments to be either wrongly calibrated, suffer from a software glitch or even be used on the wrong location of the body due to sloppy charting. A radiation error can lead to serious side effects, even shortening a patient's life.

Prescription errors can happen in many ways: the wrong dose, incorrect dilution, wrong drug, bad handwriting, misplaced decimal point or a drug that is incompatible with a patient's current medication can all lead to serious side effects - even death. The adverse effects of a prescription error can be devastating, especially for children and the elderly.

The days are long gone that the local pharmacist knew most of his or her clients, and would take time to ask the right questions before supplying a new drug. In today's mega pharmacies, the patient is at the mercy of employees who make mistakes when faced with illegible prescriptions, or who fill prescription incorrectly with the wrong drug or wrong dose, or who provide the wrong medication instructions to patients.

Infants and children are especially vulnerable to medication errors due to their small size and fast metabolisms.  They can be seriously injured or even killed if given an inappropriate drug or if given the wrong dose for their weight and age. Infants and children suffering birth defects, epilepsy, diabetes, cancer or other chronic illnesses are especially at risk of experiencing a medication problem.

These days elderly people take a lot more medication than most people, and if they suffer from cognitive challenges they may not be able to remember what medication they should be taking, how often they should take it, what it is for and what the dose is. They rely on the hospital, assisted living, or nursing home staff to make sure they receive the right drugs at the right time. Elderly patients often do not have the strength to resist medication errors and might have strong adverse reactions to a drug overdose or incompatibility.

For cancer patients, the chemotherapy sessions are potentially life-saving, but terribly difficult. Every oncology center should follow strict procedures and double-check before administering chemotherapy medication. When the right precautions aren't taken, patients suffer.  A chemo patient's cancer may persist if the wrong drug is used or if a drug is used incorrectly, or an overdose of the drug itself may cause harm and even death.