Defective/Dangerous Drugs

Defective drugs cause about 200,000 deaths every year. All too often we assume that prescription medications are safe because we trust our doctors. Defective drugs can cause serious injury or death, even when the condition that the drug was used for was not serious. The side effects that these dangerous medications can have typically bear no obvious connection to their purpose. For instance certain forms of birth control, such as the Ortho Evra patch, can cause stroke, blood clots, or heart attack.

Was it the drug or the doctor? Defective drug cases can be confusing. It can be very difficult to tell the difference between a defective drug case which is a product liability case and a medication error case which is usually a medical malpractice case. In some types of defective drug lawsuits you will have both a product liability case against the drug maker and a malpractice case against the doctor, hospital, or health care provider that was responsible.

For instance, medications can be defective because of poor labeling that leads to administration of the wrong dose. You are probably familiar with the case of Dennis Quaid's twin infants receiving a massive overdose of the blood thinner Heparin. The Quaid's filed a lawsuit against the hospital and the drug maker. The labeling of the medication made it too easy to confuse the dose, and the infants were given 1,000 the amount of the drug they should have received. The lawsuit was filed against both parties because drug makers shave a responsibility to use clear and obvious labeling to reduce the risk of this type of error, and the person administering the drug has a responsibility to administer the proper dose.

Before filing a lawsuit you must determine who is responsible. This can be complicated and not nearly as obvious as it may seem. An experienced personal injury attorney knows how to investigate your case and determine what type of case you really have.

Widespread harm A defective medication usually injures many users, not just one or two. Sometimes even hundreds or more are affected. When this happens the case may become a mass tort. A mass tort is different to a class action suit. Rather than dividing up one award or settlement evenly between victims, each case is considered individually and you are compensated according to your losses.

Defective drugs today The list of defective and dangerous drugs that can or have harmed people is very long, and as new medications are rushed to market it will keep growing. Just a few of the dangerous medications on the market today include:

* Avandia
* Celebrex
* Fen-Phen
* Fosamax
* Ortho Evra
* Vioxx
* Yaz
* Zyprexa

About the Author

If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in Wisconsin, due to the use of a defective drug, please visit http://www.cochranfirmwisconsin.com/ The Cochran Firm Wisconsin today to learn more about your rights.

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