Nursing Home Medication Error Wrongful Death Case

D’Amico Pettinicchi Injury Lawyers represented the family of a 70-year-old man who died after a medication error at a short-term rehabilitation facility.

During the resident’s stay, changes were made to his medication regimen. The case centered on allegations that a combination of medications created a significant interaction risk and that appropriate safeguards involving prescribing, pharmacy review, and nursing care failed to identify the medication interactions..

The resident died shortly after the dangerous medication changes.

Because several healthcare providers and entities were involved in the medication-management process, determining how the error occurred and which parties bore responsibility required extensive medical investigation, expert analysis, and discovery.

A Medication-Management Failure Involving Multiple Levels of Care

Medication administration in a nursing home can involve several healthcare professionals and organizations.

Depending on the circumstances, responsibility for a resident’s medications may involve prescribing providers, nursing staff, consulting or dispensing pharmacies, and the long-term care facility itself.

In this case, D’Amico Pettinicchi Injury Lawyers investigated the roles of multiple parties involved in prescribing, reviewing, dispensing, and administering the medications at issue.

A central question was whether appropriate safeguards should have identified the potential drug interaction before the resident suffered fatal harm.

Why This Case Was Complex

The case involved multiple healthcare defendants with different responsibilities for the resident’s care.

The litigation required the legal team to address:

  • Nursing home standards of care
  • Medication prescribing and administration
  • Pharmacy review and medication safety
  • Drug-interaction risks in an older adult
  • Medical causation
  • Multiple defendants and disputed responsibility
  • Apportionment of liability
  • Separate insurance interests
  • Extensive expert discovery
  • Numerous fact and expert depositions
  • Mediation and preparation for trial

Building a Multidisciplinary Medical and Medication Case

D’Amico Pettinicchi Injury Lawyers worked with experts from multiple medical disciplines to evaluate how the medication event occurred and whether the care provided met applicable standards.

The firm’s expert analysis included professionals with experience relevant to:

  • Internal and hospital medicine
  • Nephrology
  • Pathology
  • Pharmacology and medication safety
  • Medical toxicology
  • Advanced-practice nursing standards
  • Medical causation

This multidisciplinary review allowed the legal team to examine the case from several perspectives, including how the medications interacted, whether the risks should have been recognized, how the resident’s condition changed, and whether the medication regimen contributed to the death.

The Confidential Multi-million dollar Result

D’Amico Pettinicchi Injury Lawyers secured a confidential multi-million-dollar resolution.

The result followed extensive medical investigation, multidisciplinary expert review, discovery, depositions, mediation, and trial preparation.

To protect the family’s privacy and comply with confidentiality requirements associated with the resolution, identifying information concerning the resident, family members, facility, pharmacy, healthcare providers, insurers, specific medications, dates, and other unnecessary case-specific details has been withheld.

D’Amico Pettinicchi Injury Lawyers represents Connecticut families in serious nursing home negligence and wrongful death cases involving medication errors, inadequate supervision, pressure injuries, falls, and other failures in long-term care.

If you believe a loved one suffered serious harm or died following a medication error or other possible negligence in a Connecticut nursing home or long-term care facility, contact D’Amico Pettinicchi Injury Lawyers for a free consultation.