Prescription drugs often come with warning labels that explain how the drugs should be administered. Some prescriptions cannot be taken with food; others must be taken on a full stomach. Some cannot be taken with certain other drugs. For a Chicago resident who must contend with multiple prescriptions and varying drug contraindications, knowing how and when to take a needed medication can be very confusing.
Those individuals who live in nursing homes generally have help when it comes to taking their medications. Nursing home staff members maintain control of their residents’ drugs and give the drugs to them at the proper times of day and with the proper credence paid to the drugs’ warnings. However, with many patients in a single facility receiving a host of different drugs on different schedules, mistakes are sometimes made and improper medications are administered to nursing home residents.
Getting the wrong drug can be life-threatening. Certain medications can aggravate individuals’ medical conditions and others can interact in dangerous ways with other drugs the individual must take. But drug administration mistakes in nursing homes are not always limited to a person receiving the wrong drug. A nursing home resident may receive too much or too little of the right drug or may receive the right drug at the wrong time of day.
When a person is hurt or killed by the administration of the improper medication at a nursing home, he or his family members may be able to file a lawsuit against the responsible nursing home in an effort to recover his losses. The serious injuries that people suffer when they get the wrong drugs can be significant and damaging for the rest of the individuals’ lives. When this is the case, legal help is available for those individuals who have suffered drug administration harm at the hands of nursing homes.
