Medical professionals are heavily relied on when residents in Missouri fall ill or are injured. Once diagnosed, patients are often treated with medicine at a hospital, clinic, or at home via a prescription. While medication could help treat a patient or help them with the recovery of an injury or surgical procedure, errors could occur. A pharmaceutical error could result in great harm to a patient, causing them medical conditions, injuries, and even death.
Because medication errors are serious and could have severe outcomes, the Food and Drug Administration or FDA makes communications and announcements concerning medication errors to both healthcare professionals and patients in order to reduce these types of errors. A current medication safety announcement by the FDA concerns the administration of medicine given to treat neurological complications from ruptured blood vessels in the brain.
Specifically, the communication by the FDA alerts healthcare professionals about the serious medication errors that could exist if nimodipine is administered improperly. According to the announcement, these capsules should only be given orally by mouth or through a feeding tube. Administering this medicine intravenously could result in serious and sometimes fatal consequences.
While it is important for patients to be aware of the medicines they are receiving and the potential side effects they could present, this does not always guard them against receiving improper medication or having their medicine administered improperly.
A medical error such as a pharmaceutical error could result in an injured patient. Those harmed or impacted by a medication error should understand they have rights and remedies afforded to them. This could come in the form of a malpractice suit and could provide the injured patient with compensation to cover medical bills, future treatment, lost wages, and damages.
Source: Fda.gov, “FDA Drug Safety Communication: Serious medication errors from intravenous administration of nimodipine oral capsules,” accessed March 23, 2015
