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Patients trust their doctors to prescribe the proper drugs for their health conditions. However, due to improper diagnosis or negligence by the pharmacy, hospital staff or doctor, the wrong dose or medication is often prescribed. The stressful nature of the medical profession in which doctors, especially emergency room physicians, see numerous patients every day makes this an all-too-common occurrence. These prescription medication errors can result in serious personal injury and death.

If you've been injured because you were given the wrong drug or an incorrect dosage, you need to know your legal options.

According to an Institute of Medicine report, between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths may result each year from medical errors in hospitals alone -- and more than 7,000 deaths each year are related to medications. The FDA evaluated reports of fatal medication errors that it received in a five-year period and found that the most common types of errors involved administering an improper dose (41 percent), giving the wrong drug (16 percent), and using the wrong route of administration (16 percent).

The most common medication errors concern the type and dose of prescription medications. Specifically, a doctor might prescribe or a pharmacy might fill the incorrect amount of a drug -- or the wrong drug -- for a particular disorder or disease. Medication and prescription-related errors include :

    * Patient’s medical history-related errors: A patient’s medical history must be understood to prescribe the correct medication. Allergies, age, weight, previous conditions and lab tests are all crucial factors in determining appropriate medication.

    * Misplaced decimal points: A doctor can very easily prescribe the wrong amount of medication simply by placing the dosage decimal point in the wrong place, leading to under-treatment or, even worse, an overdose.

    * Drug name confusion and illegible handwriting: A doctor must clearly write or abbreviate the appropriate medication to be filled. Any errors can result in improper medication which may have tragic consequences.

    * Confusing packaging: There have been well-publicized cases of overdoses among infants who received adult doses of drugs because of similarities in the packaging between infant and adult products.

While the correct medication may effectively treat the patient’s condition, improper medication can be deadly. Many common injuries caused by medication errors include:

    * Incontinence

    * Impotence

    * Disfiguring skin eruptions

    * Stroke

    * Coma

    * Cardiac arrest

    * Respiratory problems

    * Organ failure or organ damage

    * Allergic reaction

    * Neurological damage

    * Brain injury

    * Overdose

    * Prescription addiction

    * Sensory damage

    * Hemorrhaging

    * Psychological impairment (including depression)

    * Death