When a person is asked to think of the most important things in their life, most people think of their family. When family members start to get older and have a difficult time caring for themselves due to ailing health, a medical facility or long-term care facility – sometimes known as a nursing home – is often a viable option. Some struggle with the idea of placing loved ones in a care facility. This is completely understandable, especially when horror stories related to nursing home neglect come to light.
To be fair, most patients’ experiences at nursing home facilities are positive. Most people are well cared for and would recommend their place of rehabilitation or the place where they spent their last few years to friends or family. However, occasionally an instance or facility is known to have incompetent workers or understaffing occurring which can easily result in instances of nursing home neglect or abuse. One way this would happen is if the caregivers in charge of the patient’s prescriptions is incompetent, overworked or otherwise distracted when she doses and administers the wrong medication.
Administering the wrong medication, or forgetting to give medication or even giving the wrong dosage can be catastrophic. At the Jaffe Law Firm, we know how you care for your loved ones in the later stages of their life and they deserve to be well-cared for in their later years. These instances of prescription errors can easily lead to injury or even death. Without the proper medication, an elderly person can quickly become ill or have a reaction that negatively impacts their health and quality of life.
Realizing that a medication error may be to blame for a loved one’s injury, or even their premature death, is terrifying. The care facility is obligated to administer and monitor a patient’s medication in the same way they would any aspect of their care. Carelessness is not an option. It’s important to determine if a loved one was given the improper dose, improper medication or improper schedule of medication and if that injured them, to seek damages would be appropriate.