A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against a physician who prescribed a patient a toxic amount of Prednisone and against Walgreens, which filled and then refilled the erroneous Prednisone prescription, for the patient’s death allegedly due to the overdose of Prednisone.
The patient reportedly was experiencing back pain due to multiple sclerosis when he was referred to the defendant physician on September 17, 2019. On March 2, 2021, the defendant physician allegedly prescribed a course of Prednisone (1,250 mg per day for five days), which was filled by a local Walgreens pharmacy. The patient responded to the course of Prednisone and his symptoms improved.
The patient saw the defendant physician again on May 4, 2021, at which time the defendant physician decided to prescribe another course of Prednisone: 1,250 mg of Prednisone for five days. According to the medication malpractice lawsuit, the defendant physician erroneously wrote the prescription for 1,250 mg of Prednisone for an entire month, and was refillable for another 30 days.
The Illinois wrongful death lawsuit alleges that the patient received 750 pills of Prednisone, each containing 50 mg of Prednisone, from the Walgreens pharmacy on May 4, 2021. The patient allegedly took the Prednisone until June 3, at which time his prescription was refilled. The plaintiff alleges that Walgreens owed a duty to the patient to warn both he and the defendant prescribing physician regarding the erroneous Prednisone prescription for a toxic amount of Prednisone, both at the time of the initial filling of the prescription and at the time the prescription was automatically refilled, but Walgreens failed to do so.
According to the lawsuit, the patient continued to take Prednisone each day as prescribed until he became seriously ill and had to be admitted to the hospital on June 21, 2021. The patient’s organs began to fail due to Prednisone toxicity and he subsequently died on July 2, 2021, from multi-organ failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome-circulatory shock, and pneumonia.
The wrongful death lawsuit reportedly seeks compensatory damages in excess of $75,000 for the patient’s severe pain and suffering, mental anguish, and his death due to the defendants’ negligence and carelessness.
Prednisone
Prednisone is used alone or with other medications to treat the symptoms of low corticosteroid levels (lack of certain substances that are usually produced by the body and are needed for normal body functioning). Prednisone is also used to treat other conditions in patients with normal corticosteroid levels. These conditions include certain types of arthritis; severe allergic reactions; multiple sclerosis (a disease in which the nerves do not function properly); lupus (a disease in which the body attacks many of its own organs); and certain conditions that affect the lungs, skin, eyes, kidneys blood, thyroid, stomach, and intestines. Prednisone is also sometimes used to treat the symptoms of certain types of cancer. Prednisone is in a class of medications called corticosteroids. It works to treat patients with low levels of corticosteroids by replacing steroids that are normally produced naturally by the body. It works to treat other conditions by reducing swelling and redness and by changing the way the immune system works.
If you or a loved one were harmed as a result of a medication error or pharmacy error in Illinois or in another U.S. state, you should promptly find an Illinois medical malpractice lawyer, or a medical malpractice lawyer in your state, who may investigate your medication error or pharmacy error claim for you and represent you or your loved one in a medication error medical malpractice case, if appropriate.
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