Personal Injury Law

Man Dies Following Medication Error At Hospital

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

CBS TV 11 News wrote about a new example of medical malpractice yesterday involving the death of a beloved husband and father. Wendell Knox was a long time university professor when he died at a local hospital where he was being treated for a broken hip and pneumonia.

Besides the condition which brought him to the hospital, Wendell had long suffered from heart problems. As part of his plan to treat his heart problems he was prescribed the medicine Milrinone. The medicine was clearly an important part of his health. His wife Tracy explained, ?On the medicine, my husband was doing so much better. It was amazing.?

While in the hospital following the hip injury, Wendell?s wife noticed that he was not receiving a Milrinone drip along with his other medications. When she asked about it the doctor told her that her husband no longer needed it. Shortly after that, Wendell died of cardiac arrest before ever leaving the hospital.

Afterwards, hospital officials initially told his family that the failure to give him the medicine was caused by a clerical error. Yet, further evidence revealed that in fact a doctor specifically discontinued the heart medication. It is likely that the removal of Milrinone helped lead to Wendell?s death. It had originally been prescribed for the rest of his life. As experts agree, many patients develop a dependence on medication, and they can have severe health problems if they suddenly stop taking it.

Our Chicago medical practice attorneys at Levin & Perconti understand that medical errors come in a variety of forms. Typically, when a medication error is made it means that a doctor prescribed the wrong medication or an incorrect dosage that led to patient harm. However, deadly medication mistakes can also be made under circumstances like this one, where a long-use, necessary drug are wrongly taken away by a new physician, causing the death of the patient. In either case, the medication error should never have been allowed to happen.

The various forms that these mistakes take make it difficult for many patients and their families to know when the problems they suffer have been caused by one of them. That is why it is important to contact a medical malpractice lawyer and explain your story to help ensure that your legal rights are understood and protected.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on September 07, 2010 (boomark / email).