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Delnor Hospital is sued for careless pain med prescribing

On Behalf of | May 25, 2018 | Firm News, medical malpractice

The adult daughter of a 56-year-old St. Charles woman filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against her mother’s doctors at Delnor Hospital during the second week of May.

In the filing, the woman accuses the physicians that were responsible for treating her mother in the emergency room of having repeatedly turning a blind eye to her addiction to painkillers. She later died on Feb. 7, 2017, after apparently taking a toxic combination of these highly addictive prescription medications.

In the filing, the decedent’s daughter chronicles how her mother would repeatedly go to the emergency room at Delnor Hospital where she would claim that she was suffering from different conditions. She notes that her mom often complained about having abdominal discomfort, knowing that the doctors would give her high-powered painkillers to take while she underwent time-consuming testing for what ailed her.

She notes that her mom’s exposure to prescription pain medications first began back in 2008 soon after she underwent surgery on her knees. She began taking the pain pills then to deal with the chronic pain she experienced. Her use of painkillers reportedly increased once the woman’s own mother passed away from breast cancer in 2015.

The daughter notes in the seven months before her death, records she has from one of her mom’s treating physicians shows that she called in for prescription pain medications at least 100 times. While the drug that she was prescribed the most was Norco, she also regularly got prescribed both Dilaudid and morphine.

In the lawsuit, the daughter argues that one of the reasons her mother was able to make out with so many painkillers is because doctors didn’t follow proper protocol in recording prescriptions issued to patients. Although the state requires that all Illinois physicians record how much and how often certain medications are prescribed to patients, her treating doctors apparently did not.

She also notes that doctors never seemed to find anything wrong with her mother, yet seemingly always sent her home with pills to help her reduce her pain.

When doctors fail to follow necessary protocol in prescribing medications, they put patients at risk of serious injuries or death. If your health has declined after being prescribed the wrong drug or a toxic dosage of it, then a Chicago medical malpractice attorney can advise you of your right to file a lawsuit in your case.

Source: Chicago Tribune, “Family of suburban woman sues hospital, doctor, saying they should have recognized her addiction to pain meds,” Matthew Walberg, May 15, 2018

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