Medical Malpractice Attorneys and Lawyers

Medical malpractice?

I have been going to my Dr. for 3 years now and trust her completely. She has had me on Seroquel and Wellbutrin for 2 years and just decided to up my dosage of Wellbutrin (against my wishes). I didn't have a reason to raise the dose, she just said she wanted to. Well after 1 week of taking the higher dose I had a seizure (THANK GOODNESS I WASN"T DRIVING MY SON ANYWHERE!!!) I fell off a really high chair and broke my nose, lacerated it resulting in many stitches and a nasty (soon to be) scar and had a concussion. When I went in to see her after this event she said she knew she shouldn't have increased the dose with my past medical history of bulima (i guess the PDR says not to give to bulima patients) and she said that she also has had another pt. have a seizure at the higher dose too. and the PDR says that the higher dose has a high risk of seziures. Should I sue? I've racked up a lot of bills, had to drop out of school b/c of the concussion and missed 1 month of work.

Public Comments

I'm sorry you had to go through this. Medical malpractice is a negligence issue. However, instead of holding the doctor to an "ordinary reasonable person" standard, we hold them to the standard of the average member of the local medical community, or in the case of a specialist, to the National Standard. Where it gets tricky is that you MUST present expert testimony to prove a medical malpractice case. Your expert must be knowledgeable about psych meds, must say that your doctor made a choice that was unreasonable, and that didn't meet the medical standard for whatever level your doctor is to be held to. It's sometimes very difficult to find a doctor who is willing to testify against another doctor, and it can get very expensive. Look in the yellow pages for an attorney who handles med mal, and see if they will give you a no-charge consultation. If you have a good case, they may take it on contingency. Otherwise, this is going to get expensive for you. Good luck. Namaste. Bebe EDIT: thumbs down? This is straight out of my Torts text - what more do you people want?!?
You should contact a lawyer, most med-mal attorneys will see you and review your case with no money down and most work on contingency (they don't get money until you do). Look in your local yellow pages or contact the bar association in your area and ask for a referral. Any opinion you get here will be one-sided, based on biased information, and will be speculative at best.