Plaintiffs’ medical malpractice cases concerning prescription instructions are not always as strong as they appear at first. If you do a little exploration, you may find that what seems to be a prescription for disaster could turn out to be just what the doctor ordered.
For example, let’s say your client, Dr. Dosage, didn’t follow the prescription instructions regarding the medication amount to give his patient. The medicine’s instructions clearly state that 8 mg. is the appropriate amount, but Dr. Dosage gave 10 mg. Unfortunately, the patient had an adverse event and sued Dr. Dosage for negligence.
Sounds like a slam-dunk case for the plaintiff, right? Not so fast.
Don’t make the mistake of blindly accepting prescription label instructions in your medical malpractice cases. Take time to determine what the instructions are based on. Look into the studies that led to the approval of the medication, and you might be surprised by what you find. Did researchers study people with similar health profiles or were people like the plaintiff excluded? Did they test differences in outcome if patients were given other amounts of the medication? If so, these facts might severely undermine plaintiff’s case.
Investigate the studies. Dig deep. You could make it a prescription for success!