Errors in Prescribing and Administering Medicines

‘Your Mother Was Given The Wrong Medicine’

Even with today’s electronic drug management tools, medication mistakes occur, in every kind of medical setting. Many drugs have similar names. Patient charts get mixed up. A zero is added to the dosage, causing overdose.

These problems are especially serious for residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Missing medicine, or taking the wrong medicine, can cause serious problems for people who are already not doing well. Medicine errors can trigger a rapid decline in a patient’s condition, leading to death

Some Common Medication Errors

  • The wrong medication, the wrong dose, the wrong frequency
  • Failure to “shake well” — resulting in the medicine’s strength being incorrect
  • Insufficient liquid to wash pills down — leading to coughing
  • Not taking the medicine with food, to lessen irritation
  • Air bubbles in insulin injections
  • Crushing pills marked DO NOT CRUSH
  • Misuse of metered dose inhalers

Nursing home staff are not paid much, and in many facilities, the staff are doing their best but are stretched too thin to attend to everything. But the operators of nursing homes made a promise to provide decent care, and they should be held to account.

Michael Perillo of Noonan Perillo & Thut Ltd., of Waukegan, Illinois, is one the state’s most respected nursing home abuse attorneys. He has won cases that have caused nursing home operators to re-examine their processes from start to bottom.

“Never assume that your case is the exception to the rule. If your loved one was mistreated in their care, other people’s loved ones are probably also suffering. Your claim sends a critical signal to negligent nursing home companies.” — Michael Perillo

Noonan Perillo & Thut Ltd., is a personal injury law firm. This means we take cases on a contingency basis. We don’t collect unless you collect. We invite you to call our lawyers at 847.244.0111 for a no-cost, no-obligation evaluation of your case