Prescription Drug Injuries
San Antonio Drug Injury Lawyer
Prescription and over-the-counter medications are a regular part of the medical care we receive in the United States. In fact, more than half of Americans take at least one prescription drug on a daily basis. Because drugs are so frequently used, injuries are bound to happen. These injuries could range from minor side effects to life-threatening issues such as strokes, seizures, heart attacks, cancers, and more. As a result, injured victims are forced to deal with the unbearable combination of medical expenses and lost wages. If this sounds like your situation, there is hope. You can pursue compensation by filing a dangerous drug claim, and a San Antonio drug injury lawyer at Janicek Law can help.
Personal injury attorneys at our law firm are passionate about fighting for the justice of those injured by dangerous medications. To begin your attorney client relationship with us, call 210-366-4949 today. We offer a free legal consultation to all new clients. Additionally, we work on a contingency fee basis, which means that we don’t get paid unless you get paid.
How Many Americans Take Prescription Drugs Every Day?
According to data from Georgetown University, up to 66% of American adults take pharmaceutical drugs on a daily basis. With this many people relying on medications to maintain their health and well being, defective drug cases are bound to happen.
What is a Drug Injury?
A drug injury occurs when someone sustains serious injury, illness, or death from a recalled or dangerous drug. A dangerous drug could be a prescription drug, an over-the-counter drug, or even an illegal drug.
When people suffer dangerous drug injuries, they could potentially sue drug makers and receive financial compensation through pharmaceutical litigation. If you or someone you love has suffered life-threatening health complications from dangerous or defective drugs, you need to reach out to San Antonio dangerous drug lawyers at Janicek Law.
Common Drug Injuries
People can suffer a wide range of serious injuries from defective and dangerous drugs. Generally, the health consequences greatly depend on the health condition that the drug is supposed to be treating in the first place. Examples of injuries we commonly see in dangerous drug cases are listed below.
- Dangerously high or low blood pressure
- Heart attack
- Heart failure
- Stroke
- Seizures
- Organ damage
- Mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression, panic, suicidal thoughts and desires, psychosis, delirium, etc.
- Cancer
- Deep vein thrombosis
- Vision problems
- Blood disorders
- Pancreatitis
- Excessive bleeding
- Blood clots
- And more
Drug Side Effects vs. Drug Injuries
Drug injuries and drug side effects are very similar in that they are both negative and potentially dangerous symptoms that occur when taking a drug. Common side effects of a prescription drug may be headaches, nausea, vomiting, depression, etc.
The main difference between drug side effects and injuries is that side effects are expected. In most cases, a drug company will warn consumers about side effects on the drug’s packaging. If drug companies fail to warn consumers about side effects, they could also face a slew of lawsuits.
Meanwhile, drug injuries are completely unexpected negative symptoms that occur after taking a recalled or prescribed drug. In other words, the pharmaceutical company likely didn’t know that their drug would cause such severe injuries or illness until they performed more studies or received reports from consumers.
Examples of Dangerous Drugs
In recent years, the dangerous drugs listed below have been the subjects of class action lawsuits because of their connections to major health consequences.
- Zantac
- Warfarin
- Xarelto
- Elmiron
- Injectafer
- Tasigna
- Taxotere
- Truvada
- Xeljanz
- Coumadin
If you or someone you love has taken one or more of these drugs and you’re now suffering from cancer, vision problems, pancreatitis, liver disease, and more, you may have grounds to file a class action lawsuit against the drug manufacturer.
How Many Drugs are Recalled Every Year?
An average of 4,500 dangerous drugs and defective medical devices are recalled by drug manufacturers or the FDA every single year in the United States.
Can I Sue if I Suffer a Drug Injury?
Yes, you can certainly sue if an over the counter or prescription drug causes a major personal injury. That’s because drug companies must thoroughly study and test their drugs before allowing them to hit the market. Many drugs also undergo the FDA approval process before hitting the market. You would think with all this studying, testing, and government approval that all drugs and medical devices on U.S. shelves would be perfectly safe for use and consumption. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. Dangerous drug cases still happen.
Possible Liable Parties in a Defective Drug Lawsuit
If you’re looking to file a defective drug claim, you may be wondering: who can be held liable for drug injuries? Depending on the facts of your dangerous drug case, you could possibly sue the following parties:
- Your doctor
- Your hospital or medical clinic
- The drug manufacturer
- The drug distributor
- Your pharmacy
- The drug’s testing laboratory
The only party you can’t sue is the FDA, because it holds sovereign immunity as a government entity.
It can be tough to figure out who to sue on your own. That’s why you need an experienced San Antonio drug injury lawyer from Janicek Law on your side. During your free case evaluation, we will carefully listen to your story and analyze your evidence to determine who is liable for the dangerous drug in question. If drug manufacturers, distributors, pharmacists, or even doctors are responsible for causing you harm, we can help you pursue compensation.
How to Prove That a Drug is Defective
Dangerous drug cases are handled similarly to general product liability cases because they both fall under product liability law. In both types of cases, you must prove how the product is defective. Defective drugs and products must have at least one of the three types of defects listed below.
- Manufacturing Defects are unintended defects that occur during the drug manufacturing process. A manufacturing defect will produce a drug that’s different from its intended design or formula. As a result, the drug may be dangerous or just ineffective.
- Design Defects: This type of defect means that the product’s design is what makes it dangerous, not its manufacturing. So even if the consumer used the product as directed, they would still suffer an injury because the product’s design is inherently dangerous. In many product liability cases, dangerous side effects from design defects are foreseeable by the company.
- Inadequate Warning: This type of product defect means that the company failed to warn its consumers about the dangerous risks and side effects of using their product. In the case of dangerous drugs, maybe thousands of consumers suffered life-threatening side effects just because pharmaceutical companies failed to prove warnings on the box or within the drug instruction manual. The injured patients could certainly sue for inadequate warning in this scenario.
If you’re unsure which kind of defect led to your drug injury, you should contact San Antonio dangerous drug attorneys. We can help you figure out exactly which kind of defect caused your pain and suffering and help you gather enough evidence to prove it. That way, you can receive the financial compensation that you deserve.
Damages for Drug Injuries
San Antonio dangerous drug lawyers at Janicek Law can help you recover both economic and non economic damages from your dangerous drugs lawsuit.
Economic Damages
Economic damages are the quantifiable losses you suffered as a result of your drug injury. Examples include:
- Past and future medical bills
- Past and future rehabilitative bills
- Lost wages
- Loss of earning capacity
- Counseling expenses
- Funeral and burial expenses if the drug injury results in wrongful death
Non Economic Damages
Non-economic damages are losses that don’t have monetary value. Examples include:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Emotional distress
- Loss of consortium
How Much Financial Compensation Can I Receive From My Defective Drug Claim?
Generally, the amount of financial compensation that comes from drug injury claims heavily depends on how many damages the victim suffered. For example, someone who suffers a fairly minor personal injury from a recalled drug probably won’t receive as much money as someone who died as a result of a recalled drug.
This is another reason why it’s so important to hire a San Antonio drug injury lawyer from Janicek Law. You truly won’t know how much financial compensation you can recover until experienced attorneys analyze the details of your case and calculate the amount of damages you suffered. Allow us to handle this for you.
Call a San Antonio Drug Injury Lawyer at Janicek Law Today
If you’ve suffered major health consequences as a result of negligent drug manufacturers, drug distributors, pharmacists, doctors, you name it, a dangerous drug lawyer at our San Antonio law firm wants to help. Our legal team will help you determine which type of defect caused your injury and how much financial compensation you should recover all while walking you through the legal process. Call 210-366-4949 today to schedule a free consultation.
Our San Antonio personal injury lawyers can also help clients recover compensation for medical malpractice incidents, nursing home neglect and abuse, motor vehicle accidents, and more.
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