Question about Rx’d medication
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Question about Rx’d medication
My mother was 100 disabled as determined by the Veteran’s Admin.
She took many medications.
She passed away on August 31, 2016.
I was wondering if she may have been OVER medicated. She was taking
among others hydrocodone, morphine, gabapentin, anti-depressants and
a list of others.
Any advice would be supremely helpful and appreciated.
Asked on February 25, 2017 under Malpractice Law, Arkansas
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 7 years ago | Contributor
The only way to know is to have an appropriate medical professional review her medical records and/or autopsy her and render a professional opinion, based on their medical education and experience, that this happened.
Before doing that though--it may not be worth doing. The majority of "wrongful death" lawsuit is for the income lost by the person's early death, but if she was 100% disabled, she was presumably not working, so such loss would be very little. Secondarily, there may be a claim for the deceased's suffering, but if she was overmedicated, that may not have been great in a situation like this. And in either event, the issue is how much earlier did the deceased die--if she would have died from her conditions in a year or two anyway, then there is little compensation for a somewhat earlier passing. In short, you could go to a great deal of emotional effort or pain in a situation like this, and spend a large amount of money on the medical testing, etc., to find out that nothing wrong was done, or that even if it was, that there is little compensation you could seek.
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