Q: Can I sue a doctor if they prescribed me the wrong medicine because they screwed up?
I had blood work come back that said I had hyperthyroidism , the walk in clinic doctor I saw went over the results she'd ordered and told me I had hypothyroidism. If the tsh marker is over 4 is hypo if its under .35 its hyper. Mine was .25 so I was clear it was hyperthyroidism. She prescribed me medicine for hypothyroidism which obviously made my hyperthyroidism worse. When my actual doctor got the results weeks later he immediately told me to stop and when I asked the clinic doctor about the mistake she said she was sorry and mixed them up and she should not have prescribed me that. I've suffered some minor symptoms but had this not been noticed i could have gotten thyroid storm and could have died.
A:
An Oregon med mal attorney could advise best, but your post remains open for a week. As a general matter, you have laid out some of the issues that a med mal attorney would look at in evaluating your situation, and in a way, answered part of your own question. You point out that the symptoms were minor. And you point out that, God forbid, you could have died. Med mal cases are based on actual damages, and if they are not tangible and significant, it could be difficult for an attorney to contemplate taking a case on - they are costly to prosecute. I'm happy for you that you did not sustain serious injury, but from the standpoint of legal action, attorneys would not generally take on a case based on minor damages or possibilities of what could have happened. The standard is actual damages. In terms of those TSH figures, a medical professional, not an attorney, is qualified to offer meaningful commentary on them.
Every attorney might not share the same opinion on a given situation. The best thing for you to do could be to contact a med mal attorney in Oregon and try to arrange a consult to get a different legal opinion; most practitioners in this field offer free initial consults. I'm glad for you that the matter ended with you being okay. Good luck
Tim Akpinar
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